Nagual
by Snowberryxoxo
Summary: The lone nagual Cosette arrives in Mystic Falls in her search for an old friend of hers, but on the night of her arrival she notices that there are other supernatural beings in Mystic Falls and one of them catches her interest... Damon/OC - partly AH
1. The White Wolf

**A/N: Hii and thank you for taking your time to read this story :)**

**The story is partly AU, so I won't be following the storyline completely, but just so you know when all of this is taking place, then it starts in season 1 around episodes "The Turning Point" and "Bloodlines" **

**Btw, this story is rated M for lime scenes ;D**

**Disclaimer: (Sadly) I do not own the Vampire Diaries or any of its characters, but I do own those that aren't in the books or show ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Vampire Diaries - Nagual

Chapter 1:

The cold breeze sent a shiver through the lone white wolf's body as it calmly paced through the snow covered woods. It kept it ears and eyes open for anything human in the area and caught a strange smell in the air that made it stop abruptly and raise its nose up in the cold wind. It inhaled the strange smell and knew precisely what it was. It was a human, yes, but not an ordinary human being.

Calmly, it began pacing towards it and listened carefully for any movements from the abnormal human that was in the woods in the middle of the night as well. And as it came nearer to the other being, it began slowing down and made sure that the other being didn't notice its smell or movements. It carefully stuck its head out from behind the bushes and watched as the strange human was burying something in the cold ground.

The being had midnight black hair that went to just below his earlobes, a perfect masculine jaw, sky-blue eyes, and was very fit. The wolf watched the being that continued burying, what it could smell was now a dead and normal human being, and was fascinated by the sight. It had seen many strange things and persons the last many years, but this creature was unlike anything it had ever seen.

Suddenly, an owl took off from a branch just above the wolf and that made the being look towards the wolf's direction. The wolf quietly took a step back and hid behind the bushes, blending in with all the thick layers of snow around and under it.

The being moved his gaze back to the hole he was filling up and when he finished his job, he swiftly disappeared as if he had never been there. The wolf came out from its hiding spot and walked slowly up the grave that had been planted on unholy ground. It sniffed the dark ground and caught the scent of the being mixed with some sort of beverage and something that was very much familiar to the hungry, white wolf.

Human blood.

Alone the smell made its sharp teeth become wet with saliva and it chose not to wait for any longer with finding something to eat. It continued pacing through the street, until it caught the smell of something else in the air. It was an animal.

Normally, it would only prey on animals whenever there were no humans around and this was one of those times. It began walking slowly towards the large male deer with snow covered antlers in front of it and when the deer heard a twig snap under the wolf's paw, it immediately looked towards it with malicious eyes.

The wolf grinned and leaped from the ground quicker than the deer could react, aiming solely for the deer's throat. Its sharp teeth sunk into the deer's neck even though the deer tried hard to shake the wolf off and was eventually knocked down on the ground, bleeding heavily from the wound on its throat. It didn't let go of the wound yet, though, but waited until the deer bled out before it started feasting on the juicy meat and drank its blood fervently.

As dawn finally appeared to the blood soaked wolf, it finally let go of the deer and started walking towards the nearest lake as it watched the sun rise slowly. The sky had been covered with strokes of soft colors at first, but as the sun rose the colors became more and more intense, until the sun was finally shining beautifully in the sky and lighting up the quiet town known as Mystic Falls.

The white wolf jumped into the icy cold water and washed the blood off its thick fur and when it walked up the banks of the lake again, it shook its whole body until most of the water was gone. It then began walking towards the town and as it left the woods, it transformed into a human-like girl with long, white-blond hair, hazel eyes, and full lips.

The girl grabbed the clothes she had left in her old pickup truck and pulled a clean lumberjack shirt and a pair of worn dark jeans up from her equal worn duffle bag after drying her naked body with a towel. She wetted her cold lips as she tied her damp hair in two loosely bound pigtails and then at last put her sneakers on before stepping inside the old truck.

The long drive into town took almost half an hour, but while she was driving she had the chance to enjoy some music for a little while. She turned on the car stereo and tried tuning in on the right channel. She stopped tuning in on the channel she was looking for when she heard a man talking about a local woman, who disappeared from the town last night at a party.

The man also talked about strange animal attacks that had been going on lately in the town, which immediately caught her interest. She turned the volume up and listened to the man's words as he told about how people had been disappearing mostly at night and then been found dead mostly in the woods, drained for blood and with a nasty bite mark in their throat.

Although, this could very much be her works, then she had only just arrived at this town last night and according to the man the animal attacks had been going on for a couple of months now. She sighed and wondered if the fascinating human-like being she had seen in the woods was the one who was behind the animal attacks and if the being was like her. She had not met anyone like her for a very long time, so of course she missed having someone to talk with her natural instincts about.

When she finally arrived in town it was almost 9:00 AM, so she went to the nearest open place and that place was named the 'Mystic Grill', which was a cozy local restaurant where teens might like to hang out and get a drink. She walked inside the quiet restaurant and sat down at one of the many available tables. She looked around in the restaurant and could tell by how little people there were here that all the teenagers were in school right now.

"Hello and welcome to the Mystic Grill," a young waitress at the age of 20 said, taking her attention away from the rest of the restaurant. "What would you like to order, miss?"

"A piece of strawberry pie and a cup of cappuccino," she said kindly and instinctively licked her lips hungrily by the scent of the waitress's smell. If she had not just eaten a whole deer she would have jumped on the young woman and gotten herself in trouble. "I think I want a chocolate muffin too."

The waitress nodded and went to get her costumer's lunch, while she waited at the table and took in her new environment. She sat still for a moment and merely stared at the hem of her shirt, but then she suddenly picked up a familiar scent in the air and saw the young man from last night, walking towards her. He briefly looked at her and met her eyes, but he continued walking towards another table nearby and sat with his back towards her.

"Here you go, miss," the waitress said, handing the girl her piece of pie, cappuccino, and her muffin. "Enjoy!"

The girl nodded and took a sip of her cappuccino to warm her cold body. She first ate the pie in silence, but when she began parting the muffin in smaller pieces and ate the pieces, she couldn't resist the temptation to look at the man became simply too much for her and she looked up from her plate at him. He was drinking a cup of black coffee and enjoying the quiet morning just as she was.

_How do I find out who he is? Or should I say 'what' he is? _She thought wonderingly and rested her chin on her hand. _Even if he's not like me, then it's great to know who else lives in this quiet town…_

Her cell phone suddenly started vibrating in her pocket, so she took her eyes off him and looked at the caller ID. It was a friend of hers, who was almost like her, but they were still two completely different creatures. They just had some of the same habits like preying on innocent humans at night and drinking their blood to survive.

"Hello, my old friend," she said softly, smiling weakly. "You are wondering if I arrived safely, yes?"

"_Yes,_" her friend said with his usual British accent. "_I hope that cold weather has not been too cruel on you."_

"It has not, but thank you for your concern, Elijah. I will call you back once I have located her."

"_Thank you, Cosette… I must go now, but I wish you good luck._"

Cosette thanked her friend and they said their goodbyes. She looked towards the table where the young man had been, but he was now gone and at his table was now an older couple. She finished eating her muffin, paid for her lunch, and left the warm restaurant once again. She scanned the streets around her and noticed that she was being watched by a lone crow that sat up in a tree nearby and tried keeping itself warm.

With a low whistle, she made the crow fly down to her and gently stroked its snow covered dark wings, listening to its complaint of how cold it was outside and how little food it could find. She walked with it to her truck and took out a piece of bread from her duffle bag that it gladly ate.

"There is something I need you to do for me now," Cosette said softly, stroking its head gently. "I need you to keep an eye on the young man in the leather jacket. Do you understand?"

The crow understood and it flew away towards the direction the man had driven, while Cosette continued her search for a certain someone, whom her friend had been looking for for years. She too had looked for the person and still remembered how she looked even after all those years. She therefore knew where she had to look first and went to the only public high school in the town.

The school was filled with young teenagers and they were walking from classroom to classroom when she arrived and entered the front entrance.

Cosette held her eyes and ears open for the person she was looking for as she walked towards the principal's office to enroll herself at the school. She looked about twenty years old, so she discretely made herself a few years younger to fit in and no one seemed to know that she was in reality much older than twenty.

It didn't take long for her to make the principal give her a schedule and let her enroll the school just like that, but that was mostly because she had used her powers on him. She then swiftly went to the school library to fetch her books, just before her first period began and the teacher arrived. She easily found herself a seat in the classroom and noticed that all the students were staring at her, because they hadn't heard that a new student would start in the school today. Not even the teacher did.

"Well… I see that we have a new student here," the History teacher Mr. Alaric Saltzman said. "I am Alaric Saltzman and we have just begun on a new topic today. Would you like to tell something about yourself before we begin?"

Cosette nodded and as she rose from her seat she noticed someone highly familiar sitting nearby. She smiled at the sight of the young girl with the dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, and wondered if she had truly found the person she was looking for that easily.

"My name is Cosette Wolfe," she said, grinning a bit of the irony of her choice of surname this time. "I just moved here from Cannes in France with my family."

Mr. Saltzman nodded and she heard a couple of greetings from her new classmates. She sat down again and looked one more time at the dark haired girl, who sat next to another strange being who slightly reminded her of the one she saw in the woods and at the restaurant. She wondered if he was like her too and if he knew the other strange being.

_She smells human, looks human, and acts nothing like the one I'm looking for, but I cannot deny that they look completely alike, _Cosette thought and frowned slightly. She moved her gaze back to the blackboard and wanted to groan when she saw what today's topic was. _I really do not understand why teachers want to teach the younger generation of something they do not need to know. I would know since I lived through it._

"Okay, class," Mr. Saltzman said half-heartedly. "Let me hear what you all know about the 6-day war..."

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	2. Damon Salvatore

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and story alerts ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 2:

The first day at Mystic Falls High School ended early, so most of her classmates went to the Mystic Grill to get something to eat and hang out like normal teenagers would do on a Wednesday afternoon. Cosette had overheard a conversation between the dark haired girl and the other strange being and knew that they were going to the Grill as well, so she thought that now would be a good time for her to become their friend and get to know them.

While the students were walking out to the parking lot or talking with their friends, Cosette walked up to the girl and her friends that were talking about an upcoming party. She quickly got their attention without having to say a word, but the blond haired girl in the group sent her a disapproving look that gave her the sense that she felt threatened by her presence.

"Hi, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but I was just wondering if you knew something that could give me a tour of the town or tell me about Mystic Falls," Cosette said shyly. "I'm new, so I don't know that many here."

"Sure, we can show you around," the dark haired girl said. "I'm Elena Gilbert and these are my friends Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett. We were actually just heading to the Grill. You wanna join us?"

Cosette nodded, but there was something that worried her. This girl's name was Elena, which meant that she couldn't be the one she was looking for. But she still needed to find out why they looked so alike, so she went with them to the Grill and listened half-heartedly as they told her about Mystic Falls, the school, the students, and other things she should know.

It didn't take long for Cosette to sense Bonnie's powers and she wondered if the young witch, who sat next to her could sense her powers too. It didn't seem like it, but the girls were a tad suspicious of her and why she suddenly moved from Cannes to Mystic Falls with her family. They also wondered why she didn't have a French accent or a French surname, so Cosette came up with a quick lie about how she and her parents originally came from England, but then they moved to France and then to America, because of her father's job.

However, while they were at the Mystic Grill and enjoyed the afternoon, Cosette noticed someone very familiar walk inside and this time he walked up to the bar to get himself a glass of scotch. Cosette smiled weakly and wondered if any of her new friends knew this strange being.

"Urgh! Damon's here!" Caroline complained and glared at the same man Cosette was looking at.

"Who's Damon?" she asked curiously.

"The world's biggest jackass, that's what he is," Bonnie said and the girls giggled. "He's Elena's boyfriend's older brother and one you should stay at least 20 feet away from."

Cosette nodded understandingly, but she was going to approach him at some point anyway, because there was something about him that she found strangely alluring and she also needed to know if he was like her. She took her eyes off him, though, and continued parting the blueberry muffin she had ordered before eating the pieces.

But as Cosette ate the last of her muffin, she saw the other strange being enter the Mystic Grill and when he walked up to Damon, she could better see the resemblance between them. They were brothers, which meant that the other being was Elena's boyfriend.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Cosette asked, nodding towards the younger being.

Elena nodded. "That's Stefan Salvatore. He's new in town too." she answered.

Cosette leaned back in her seat and wondered if Stefan was behind the mysterious animal attacks as well or if it was only his older brother.

"Hi, Elena," Stefan said when he walked up to their table. He moved his gaze to Cosette and offered his hand, which she politely shook. "You're Cosette Wolfe. The new girl, right? I'm Stefan Salvatore."

"I know," Cosette said, feeling a strange sensation in her body when their hands touched. She now knew what he was and was disappointed by the fact that he wasn't completely like her. "It's nice to meet you, Stefan. And thank you to all of you for telling me about Mystic Falls."

The others smiled, but their smiles quickly faded away when no other than Damon Salvatore walked up to the table and looked solely at Cosette with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Well, hello there, new girl," he said seductively, taking a seat closely next to her. "What's your lovely name?"

"Cosette…" she said and could see that the others were very annoyed by his presence. "I think I should be going home now. My parents are probably waiting for me."

Cosette expected that Damon was going to move, but he kept looking at her in a way that made her body tingle and feel warm. She wanted to find out more about him even though he was not like her and perhaps he could help her with finding out more about Elena.

"Aw, you really have to go so soon? But we just met?" Damon said teasingly.

"_Damon_!" Stefan said warningly and this time Damon moved away.

Cosette said her goodbyes and left the Mystic Grill, because even though she needed to learn more about Elena, Stefan, and Damon, then she still had other things to attend that were a little more important. She walked outside to her pickup truck and made sure that no one was eavesdropping on her conversation when she called her old friend Elijah.

"_Have you already located her?_" Elijah asked wonderingly.

"No, I don't believe she's here yet, but now that I am here I will try finding Isobel," Cosette answered, stepping inside the warmth of her car. "I have heard rumors of her being excellent at researching for supernatural… things so to speak. How is your trip going? Have you found Klaus yet?"

"_No, sadly not. He keeps moving, but I'm sure I will find him eventually. Until I do, I will send Phillip to assist you in your search._"

"Phillip? But I hate Phillip! He's so…"

"_I know, but he is the only vampire who is closets to you. Promise me you will not kill him._"

Cosette scoffed. "I will try, but I cannot promise anything. You know how he acts around me."

Elijah sighed, but he said goodbye and she hung up just before Damon stepped out of the Grill and looked towards her direction. Cosette ignored his staring eyes and drove back to the woods, so she could continue her other search. She noticed that Damon was following her at a safe distance and chose to drive a little faster.

When Cosette arrived at the woods, she stepped out of her pickup truck, swiftly stripped down, and then transformed into a white owl. She flew above the trees and used her enhanced sight to look for a particular place in the woods. As she flew above the area where her pickup truck was parked, she noticed Damon walk up to her car and look for any clues of where she was. He seemed to become confusedly when he found the bag with her clothes and the other few things she had in her bag.

It was clear to Cosette that Damon was suspicious of her arrival too, but she wasn't afraid that he would expose her or try harming her, because there was a reason why she was still alive after centuries of being the way she was. She ignored his curious ways and continued flying around in the area, until she finally found what she was looking for. It was an old tomb and when she flew back down to the ground, she swiftly transformed to her wolf form and walked up to the tomb.

"Now what would a wolf be doing out here alone?" someone suddenly said.

Cosette turned and spotted Damon coming out from behind the bushes, armed with a broken piece of wood. She growled warningly at him, but he merely flashed a smirk and walked closer to her.

_Does he know what I am?_ she thought worriedly. _Or did he just happen to be nearby and heard me here?_

"Come here doggy," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you… that much."

Cosette took a few steps back as he moved towards her and when he moved to grab her, she leaped from the ground and jumped on him with such force that he was knocked down to the ground. He pushed her off him and tried staking her with the piece of wood, but she quickly backed away and was only scratched on her left arm.

Cosette still bled, though, so she growled loudly at him before running away and transforming into an owl again. She flew away and let him search for her, while she went back to her car and transformed back to her human form.

"God damn it!" Cosette cursed when she saw the bleeding wound on her arm. She clenched her teeth and bound a piece of one of her old shirts around her arm before she quickly dressed and left the woods in a hurry. "That was close… too close."

She took a deep breath and sent a text to Phillip about where they should meet. He wrote back that he had a motel room in Mystic Falls and she therefore headed to the motel where the 300 years old British vampire was already waiting outside the motel and smoking a cigarette. He ran his fingers through his sleek dark blond hair and looked flirtatiously at her with his blue-gray eyes.

"Hello, Cossie," he said in a smug tone and flicked the cigarette away before approaching her. "You look beautiful as always, but… younger."

"Save it, Phil! I'm not in the mood to listen to your annoying voice," Cosette snapped and walked right past him and inside his motel room. She immediately went to the sink in the small kitchenette and carefully removed the fabric around her bleeding wound, so she could wash the blood away. Phillip teasingly licked his lips and went to taste the remaining blood on her arm, but Cosette flashed her werewolf fangs at him and growled warningly. "I said: _I'm not in the mood_!"

"Okay, okay!" Phillip said, raising his arms in defense. "What happened to you anyway?"

"I was attacked by a vampire… in my wolf form. I don't think he knows what I am."

Phillip smirked and leaned against the kitchen counter as he watched her wrap bandages around the fresh wound. "I did hear that this town has a bit of a vampire problem here… You know who the vampire is?"

Cosette nodded. "Damon Salvatore."

The old vampire snorted now and went to sit down at a table. "Oh, I know Damon Salvatore alright. He and his foolish brother Stefan used to be smitten with Katherine Pierce, until she mysteriously disappeared at the great fire in 1864. You think any of them are looking for her?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps. But that does explain why Stefan is in love with a girl, who looks just like Katherine. I think they might be doppelgangers or related in some strange way."

Phillip lit another cigarette and took a long drag of it before he continued. "I think we should keep an eye on them for a little while. Maybe they know something about where Katherine really is. And the faster we can get her to Elijah, the better."

"Yes…" Cosette sighed and sat down opposite him, covering the bandages with her sleeves. She looked out of the window and sighed by the sight of snow falling down from the gray sky.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	3. The Tomb

**A/N: Hii, again thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts ;D**

**Won't be long until the first lime scene is going to be written ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 3:

Phillip gave Cosette a ride to school in his beloved black Lamborghini Murciélago (much to Cosette's annoyance) and after dropping her off at the parking lot, he went to the school office to make some copies of Elena and Stefan's files, so they had a little information about them, while Cosette made sure that her new friends didn't see her arrive with Phillip and made her way inside without drawing too much attention on herself.

However, when Cosette stood at her locker and changed her books to the ones she had to use today, she could hear Stefan talking with Bonnie about her powers and her suspicion about Bonnie being a witch was confirmed. But Bonnie also told Stefan that she sensed something strange about Cosette and that she thought the new girl was a witch too.

After that conversation Stefan approached Cosette and she could tell by the way he was looking at her that he wanted to know if she truly was a witch like Bonnie thought.

"I hope you found your way home last night…" he said kindly as they walked to the first period. "I had a little trouble finding my way home the first day I was here."

"I did too, but I eventually got home," Cosette lied casually and took a seat in the Biology classroom. "Where's Elena? I haven't seen her around yet."

"Oh, um… she's sick," Stefan said, but Cosette could sense that there was something wrong about that answer. "But Cosette, there's something I need to talk with you about and I think you know what it is."

Cosette nodded. "You want to know if I'm a witch, yes?"

Stefan nodded and seemed slightly relieved that she admitted it instead of him having to start spying on her like Damon had.

"I am and I know what you and your brother are, but I prefer if you keep this information to yourself and don't tell anyone about it. Especially not your brother. I didn't come here to make enemies, Stefan. I came to find the person who turned you."

He looked confusedly at her now. "Katherine? Why do you want to find her?"

Cosette smiled weakly. "I have my reasons."

Stefan sighed and leaned back in his seat, looking anxious of something that Cosette could only guess had something to do with why Elena was not in school today.

"Has something happened to Elena?" she asked worriedly.

Stefan shrugged. "I'm not sure. She's not answering her phone and she wasn't home when I dropped by her house. I was actually hoping that Bonnie or Caroline knew where she was, but they don't know where she is either."

"Oh… maybe I can help you find her then."

Stefan thanked Cosette and after spending three hours in school, they went to Stefan's home that was located near the woods. Cosette was impressed by the sight of the Salvatore Boarding House and missed sleeping in a proper bed instead of on the ground in her wolf form, in her car or on a couch in a small motel room with a 300 years old vampire, who refused to be a gentleman and let her have the only bed in the room.

"This place has a lot of history…" Cosette said as they entered the living room. She looked curiously around in the 19th century styled home that was originally made in the 20th century and used as a boarding house. "I can sense that a few people have died here. Am I correct?"

"Yes, that is… sadly correct," Stefan said, taking a seat on the couch. "But how are you able to sense that? I mean, you're a fairly young witch."

Cosette chuckled softly and shook her head. "I'm much older than I look, Stefan. But that's a completely different story. Right now I need to help you and then you will help me find Katherine as we agreed, yes?"

Stefan nodded, but looked suspiciously at her as she sat down on the couch too. He unfolded a map on the coffee table and handed her one of Elena's bracelets that they had taken on their way to his home. Cosette took out a pendulum from her bag and held it in the same hand as the bracelet was as she moved the pendulum in circles over the map.

"Fes matos tribum, nas ex veras…" Cosette chanted quietly and the more she repeated the sentence, the more the pendulum began moving towards Georgia where it stopped. "She's in Georgia, but… she's not alone."

"Is Damon with her?" Stefan asked worriedly.

"Maybe. I can't tell, but I'm not sensing that she is in any danger," she answered. "Just be patient. I'm sure Damon won't let anything happen to her if he's with her."

"How can you be so sure? You've only been here for a day…"

"That is true, but I know that Damon is not going to let her die, because of the fact that she looks exactly like Katherine."

Stefan nodded understandingly and thanked her once again for helping him, but there was still something that seemed to bother him.

"You said that you were much older than you looked… Exactly how old are you if I may ask?"

Cosette smiled shyly. "I'm _very_ old. And by that I mean that I'm definitely older than you and Damon combined..."

That shocked Stefan, but he remained calm and just tried to understand how she was able to be that old when she was just a witch. Cosette wanted to tell him what she truly was, but she didn't trust him enough to do that.

"But as I said then it's a long story and now I need to go."

Cosette tugged the pendulum back in her bag and left the house, but she didn't ask for a ride home, because she had something she needed to finish before she went back to the motel. She walked through the woods and searched for the old tomb beneath Fell's Church.

Cosette remembered how far it was from the Salvatore Boarding House, so she didn't have any problems finding it and when she came to the tomb, she walked up to the stone door and let her fingers gently touch the reversed pentagram that had been carved into the door.

"Fes matos tribum, nas ex veras, estas sue sastanance, trasum viso! Mastenas quisa, nas metam!" she chanted and when she closed her eyes, she felt a part of her leave her body.

Cosette walked right through the stone door and walked past the mummy-like people around her that were craving desperately for blood. Among the starving vampires she noticed one particular vampire that she remembered very well. She walked up to the 500 years old vampire and kneeled down beside her even though the vampire couldn't see her. She was an astral projection of herself and like a ghost to everyone, who couldn't see an astral projection.

"Oh, Pearl… what did they do to you?" she asked, not really expecting an answer.

Cosette sighed heavily and pushed a stray of Pearl's midnight black hair away from her face. Pearl was starting to gain consciousness by the touch of her fingers, but she was still too weak to notice that anyone was in the tomb and so were the others. Cosette stood up and continued looking around in the tomb, counting all the vampires she came across, until she was sure that _someone_ was missing and she now knew who that someone was.

Knowing that Katherine Pierce was never in the tomb, she went back to her body and called Phillip, so he could give her a ride home. Almost half an hour passed by, but Phillip eventually found her and drove her back to the motel.

"You were right about Katherine not being in the tomb," Cosette said, turning on the heater and warming her cold fingers. "Where do you think she is?"

Phillip shrugged. "I can try asking my contacts, but you know how good she is at hiding," he said. "But Cossie, there is something else I need to talk with you about. It's about a question I asked you when you visited me in London in 1780."

Cosette sighed heavily, because she knew exactly what he wanted to talk with her about. She just didn't want to talk about it and rather wanted to forget about her time in London. She had been there to visit her friend Elijah and met one of Elijah's "young" friends, who wanted to help him with finding Katherine.

Cosette had immediately caught his interest and although Cosette found him interesting too, then she felt very annoyed with his view on women and she also knew that he had a reputation of sleeping with almost every woman in London, so she kept a distance from him and that annoyed him. He wasn't used to being rejected, but when Phillip asked her if she wanted to marry him, she never answered his question, but just left town and never talked with him again.

"I believe you still owe me an answer," Phillip said when Cosette didn't say a word. "I mean you knew how much I was in love with you and still am and instead of giving me an answer, you just leave without saying goodbye."

"The last man who proposed to me almost had me sacrificed, Phillip," Cosette said, trying hard to forget that memory too. "And it didn't exactly help that you had a bad reputation and annoyed me almost more than I actually loved you."

Phillip's jaw tightened and he remained quiet, until they arrived at the motel and went inside their warm motel room. Cosette sat down on the couch/bed and began braiding her long loose hair, so she had an excuse not to look at him.

"Cossie, I understand that you were worried, but it's a long time ago. I'm different now and when I heard that you were going to Mystic Falls, I immediately offered to help you. And now that I'm here I want an answer. Do you want to marry me?"

Cosette was quiet.

A part of her did want to marry him even though there were some parts of him that she truly hated, but then there was also Damon, who was nothing like the other vampires she had met and she wanted to know what hid behind his dark personality.

"I can't answer you, Phillip. I want to, but… I just don't know what I want anymore," Cosette finally said much to Phillip's disappointment. "I have lived about as long as Elijah, I've had everything I could possibly want, and I've had nothing at all. Do you understand?"

Phillip didn't say anything, but grabbed his car keys and left without saying a word, slamming the door behind him. Cosette lay down on the couch and just stared at the white ceiling, thinking back on the day when she met her first love at the age of 16 and felt this strange attraction to him.

Like the strange attraction she felt to Damon.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	4. The School Dance

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts ;)**

**New chap might be up later today**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 4:

"You _are_ coming to the school dance tonight, right?" Caroline asked, nearly pushing the poster in Cosette's face.

Cosette took the poster and looked at what it said. It was a school dance with a 50's theme and everyone was supposed to dress up in 50's outfit. She remembered the 50's very clearly and wasn't necessarily a fan of it, but she didn't have anything against it.

"Sure… but I don't think I have anything to wear." Cosette said, walking with her to the canteen.

They sat down at the table where Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena were and Stefan mouthed a 'thank you' to her for what she did for him yesterday. She replied with a soft smile and returned her gaze to Caroline, who seemed to be very excited about the party.

"Well, then I'll do the honor of taking you out for a little shopping trip. What do you say?" Caroline said cheerfully.

Cosette looked at Bonnie and Elena and they both nodded to her unspoken question on whether or not she should go with Caroline.

"That sounds great. Thank you, Caroline."

Caroline smiled brighter and after they were done with their last two periods, they went out shopping as agreed. They went to a vintage store and although it was more Caroline, who ended up choosing which dress Cosette was going to wear then she actually had fun with her and could tell why Bonnie and Elena liked her. She could be nice sometimes and knew how to get a cute dress for not that much money even though it wasn't a problem for Cosette to pay for anything.

When they were done shopping they went home to Caroline to get ready for the party and Cosette saw this as the perfect opportunity for her to ask Caroline about Damon, so she could understand why everyone seemed to hate him with a great amount of passion.

"What's the deal with Damon?" she asked curiously. "I mean, why is he…"

"Such a douche bag? Sweetie, let me tell you something about Damon," Caroline answered and took a deep breath before she continued. "He's a liar, manipulative, treated me like crap when we were together, and then he _always_ comes with these annoying, smartass comments! Urgh! God, I hate that guy. I wish he would just die."

"Wow! That… is something," Cosette couldn't stop herself from giggling and made Caroline giggle too. "Okay, I got it. Damon is a douche bag and he's most likely going to hell."

"That's right!" Caroline laughed and picked up her ironer to straighten Cosette's wavy hair.

"What about you and Matt? Are you a couple or…?"

Caroline blushed. "Well, no but… he's Elena's ex and best friends' exes are off limit."

"But you like him, don't you?"

"Yeah, he's really nice if you compare him to Damon and sometimes I really don't understand why he and Elena even broke up. I mean, he's perfect."

Cosette smiled. "I think you should ask him out then. It doesn't matter if you ask Elena for permission or not. If you truly really like him, then she shouldn't stop you from being happy."

"Wise words from a single girl!"

They both laughed again and didn't talk about boys anymore that afternoon, but concentrated on getting ready. When they finally were ready and all set to go, Cosette could feel her own nerves start messing with her head. She wondered if Damon was going to come to the party, if he knew that she was the one he had fought against in the woods, and if he was even interested in her.

The party had already begun when they arrived and they met up with the others, who were just as nicely dressed as Cosette and Caroline were in their 50's inspired dresses. However, Cosette spotted someone who wasn't supposed to be at the party and he didn't look particularly happy tonight.

"I'll be back in a minute," she said and quickly walked up to Phillip, who stood at the bar with a non-alcoholic drink in his hand. "Phillip, what are you doing here?"

"Making sure that you're okay," Phillip answered with a mischievous smirk. "You look beautiful by the way and you better save me a dance before the party is over."

Cosette shook his head of him and walked back to her friends. To everyone else Phillip just looked like a random 25-year-old guy, who was chaperoning tonight, but she knew that he was nowhere near a normal guy. He could snap anyone's neck if he wanted to and if she began talking with Damon, he would most likely become jealous and rip his heart out when they were alone in a room.

"_And we meet again,_" Cosette heard a familiar voice say. She dreaded that she would hear this voice and hesitantly turned around to face Damon, who unlike all the others wore his usual dark clothing and his black leather jacket. "Where did your date disappear off to?"

_If I just don't touch him then I'm sure Phillip won't hurt him, _Cosette thought. _But that doesn't stop Damon from touching _me.

"He's here somewhere," Cosette lied and could tell that Damon didn't believe her, because he flashed one of his disturbing, but alluring smiles. "Aren't you a little too old for school dances?"

Damon chuckled. "No, but I'm just chaperoning. But… _if_ your 'date' doesn't return, then I would like to dance with you. A pretty girl like you shouldn't stand here alone while everyone else is having fun."

Cosette gulped and looked towards Phillip's direction, but he wasn't there anymore. She looked around in the mass of teenagers and spotted Stefan and Elena dancing together.

"C'mon! I'm not going to bite you…" Damon grinned and Cosette knew why.

"No, thank you. I will just wait here for my date." Cosette said and sat at a table nearby.

Damon frowned, but he didn't give up yet. "Who told you about what a major dick I am? Was it Caroline? Or Steffie?"

Cosette looked into his sky-blue eyes and felt an anxious feeling inside her. She wanted to dance with him, but not now and especially not in front of Phillip. She knew how jealous he could become and knowing now that he still loved her, meant that he would be more on guard around her.

"It's not why I don't want to dance with you," Cosette said hesitantly. "It's something else."

"Aha… And what is that? Your date is going to get jealous and pick a fight with me?" Damon asked teasingly, unknowingly just how right he was.

"Something like it, yes."

"Okay and where is that date of yours?"

Cosette sighed and looked around again, but she still couldn't see Phillip anywhere. Had he left? Or was he just feeding on some poor girl? Before Cosette could say anything, Damon suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her close to him. He slipped his arm around her waist, so she couldn't get away, and she could see his pupils start dilating, because he wanted to compel her.

"What were you doing at the woods two days ago?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"What were _you_ doing at the woods two days ago?" Cosette asked teasingly.

Damon frowned, but by the look of how he looked at her, Cosette guessed that he just thought that she was on vervain. He suddenly spun her around and bent her backwards with his arm still safely around her waist. Cosette could feel the attraction to him grow stronger, but she also feared that Phillip would see them, so she tried getting out of his iron grip.

"Let go of me!" she said firmly.

Damon smirked and pulled her closer to him, resting his head on her shoulder. She could feel him breathe on her neck and it sent a warm tingle through her body. She wanted to surrender to the feeling, but she knew that he was just trying to seduce her and find out who she really was.

"Now look at this," Damon said, showing the arm where she had a scar from his attack. "Where did you get this, _wolfie_?"

_He knows! Did Stefan tell him that I'm a witch? No, he couldn't have because then he wouldn't think that I was the wolf he attacked,_ Cosette thought and flashed her yellow eyes and wolf fangs at him.

"Let go of me, Damon." Cosette growled more than said.

Damon flashed his fangs discretely at her too, but he finally let go of her and they hid their true face before anyone noticed that they weren't normal.

"I knew there was something… freaky about you. In the morning you looked three years older and then in the afternoon you didn't. What _are_ you, Cosette? If that's even your real name."

"That's none of your business. But I'd better warn you. I'm not someone you want to annoy."

Cosette disappeared into the crowd and went to the long, empty hallways of the school. She leaned against the lockers and cursed at herself mentally for letting Damon catch her off guard. She took a deep breath and was about to walk back to the party when she suddenly heard a strange noise.

Cosette walked further down the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks, because she felt a familiar prickling feeling in the back of her neck. She quickly turned around and was slammed into the lockers by Phillip. She felt his lips collide with hers in a passionate kiss and was too shocked to push him away. Parts of her missed his soft lips, but the kiss didn't feel right.

However, Phillip had other things on his mind other than just kissing her and she could feel his hand move her dress up to her thigh, until he reached the hem of her panties. She flinched by the touch of his fingers and pushed him away, flashing her wolf eyes and fangs at him.

"You never change, Phillip," she hissed angrily. "You're just as promiscuous as you were last time we met, but at least now I know what to answer. No."

Cosette went to walk away, but Phillip grabbed her arm in an iron grip. She growled warningly at him and transformed into her wolf form – ignoring that her dress and underwear ripped as she did so. She growled even louder at him this time, but he didn't as much as flinch even though he knew that she could kill him if she wanted to.

"I can't believe you! You can't say no to _me_ and especially not so you can let that baby vamp rub himself up of you!" Phillip snarled. "But you know what? I'm not letting that dick to Damon have you when you belong with _me_!"

Cosette growled again and attacked him. She'd had enough of him and was going to kill him if that was what was going to take to get rid of him. Phillip just became furious, though, and quickly attacked her after avoiding her sharp teeth. He pulled out his knife and stabbed her in her side when she bit into his arm, making her let out a loud whimper. She might have many powers and was much older than him, but she was still somewhat mortal and could get hurt.

Phillip pulled the knife out and looked at her with hatred in his eyes. "Now no one can have you, my dear Cosette…"


	5. Transforming Witch

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 5:

Stefan and Damon were the ones who found Cosette bleeding on the floor in her wolf form, but instead of letting her die like Damon suggested, Stefan called Elena and Bonnie, and they helped him get her into his car, so they could get her some help. They drove back to the boarding house and even though Elena was trying her best to stop the bleeding, blood still kept pouring out of her wound.

"I can't believe that this is Cosette…" she said, pressing Cosette's dress hard to the wound. "Stefan, did you know what she was?"

"Yes or… she told me that she was a witch, but she didn't mention anything about transforming into animals," Stefan said and quickly parked the car in his driveway. "Let's get her inside."

Elena and Bonnie nodded and helped him carry her inside. They placed her on the couch and when she transformed back to her naked form, they quickly covered her body to keep her warm. Cosette was panting and coughing up blood, but she refused to drink Stefan's blood when he offered it to her.

"I… I need… human blood," she panted, making Elena and Bonnie turn pale in their faces. But Stefan quickly fetched a bag of hospital blood and the more she drank, the quicker her wound healed up in front of them. Soon there was nothing left but clean skin and the scar on her arm had disappeared as well. "Thank… you."

"What happened to you?" Elena asked worriedly.

"_What_ are you?" Bonnie asked.

Cosette sat up with the blanket tightly wrapped around her cold body and took in a deep breath before she answered.

"I'm… a nagual," she said and took another deep breath. "A vampire and old friend of mine named Phillip attacked me, because I rejected his proposal. He became furious and stabbed me, so… so no one could have me."

"A nagual? What's that?" Stefan asked curiously.

"A shape shifter or if you have to translate it right, then nagual means 'transforming witch'. My grams have told me about those before. They're almost extinct and used to be sacrificed back in the Aztec time. Am I right?" Bonnie answered.

Cosette nodded and smiled tiredly. "That's what I meant by old, Stefan. I'm over a thousand years old. I was born during the Mayan time and the only reason why I'm still alive is that I drink human blood too."

"A thousand years old? That's… that's very old!" Elena said.

Cosette blushed, but nodded and suddenly heard Damon enter the house. He smirked when he saw that she was bare under the blanket and instinctively, Cosette tightened the blanket around her. She didn't like that Damon acted like Phillip in some ways, but she still found him strangely fascinating.

"So are you going to explain why you're really here or do we need to put a collar around your neck?" Damon asked smugly.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him and told Cosette to follow her upstairs, so she could borrow some of her clothes. Bonnie stayed downstairs with Stefan and explained Damon what Cosette was in the meanwhile. It was strange for Cosette to reveal that much about herself to someone she barely knew, but she felt that she could trust them… well, some of them.

"Why are you really here?" Elena asked worriedly, while Cosette pulled the borrowed shirt on.

"I'm… looking for Katherine," she answered hesitantly and walked up to Elena. She could tell that Elena knew who Katherine was and could safely continue. "I knew her back before she came to Mystic Falls and have been looking for her ever since she disappeared in 1864."

"But Katherine is in the tomb… right?"

Cosette opened her mouth to answer, but there was a knock on the door and they opened it to see Stefan and Bonnie.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Stefan asked worriedly.

Cosette shook her head. "I lived with Phillip in a crappy motel and I'm not going back anytime soon…" she answered.

"In that case, then you're free to take one of our guestrooms. If you of course help us with finding a certain someone."

She nodded and knew exactly who Stefan was referring to. "But why are you looking for her?"

"We're not," Elena said. "Damon is. He's still in love with her and wants to do whatever it takes to get her back. We've agreed to help him, but we're only going to let Katherine out. The other 26 vampires are staying inside the tomb."

Cosette wanted to tell them that Katherine wasn't in the tomb, but she knew that Damon might be eavesdropping on their conversation and she didn't want to break his heart if he truly still was in love with Katherine. She kept her mouth quiet and chose a guestroom to sleep in, but as she went to bed she couldn't stop herself from worrying if she did the right thing by rejecting Phillip when the one she liked was in love with someone else.

_Katerina was always able to make any man fall for her with her charm, _Cosette thought and sighed heavily. _Why must I always fall for the wrong men? My mama was right. I am cursed._

The nightfall came and went and as the sun rose over Mystic Falls once again, Cosette was the first up and was searching for more human blood downstairs. She hadn't slept well and kept thinking about the choices she had made the last couple of days. She never expected that things would go so wrong on a simple trip to Mystic Falls, but it had and now an old friend of hers had become her enemy.

Cosette eventually found another blood bag from the hospital and mixed it with some of the alcohol she found in the living room. She was about to take a sip when she heard someone walk down the stairs and in to the living room. It was Damon and he was irritated to see her still in the house.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked angrily.

"I'm living here now," Cosette answered with a smirk. "Stefan let me in return for my help. I heard that you guys are looking for Katherine too and I'm willing to help you."

"And how do you know Katherine?"

"We're old friends. We used to hold slumber parties and experiment on each other…" Cosette laughed and took a seat on the couch.

"Is that so? Which kind of experiments?" Damon sat down next to her and slipped his arm around her like had done in the Mystic Grill.

Cosette leaned closer to him and was tempted to press her lips against his just to feel the touch of them, but she restrained herself and leaned to his ear instead.

"That's a secret you'll never learn, _Salvatore_."

She took a sip of her drink and enjoyed the old familiar taste of human blood. It might be cold, but it was still blood and she could live with it.

"Who are you? I know that you're a shape shifter and apparently older than you look, so what else are you hiding from us?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"My real name… is not Cosette, but you won't be able to pronounce my name anyway, so it doesn't really matter. And I have told you everything you need to know. Now, are you going to leave me alone or do you want me to bite you in your ass?" Cosette answered teasingly.

Damon smirked mischievously, so she got up and left the living room instead. She finished her drink and when she washed the glass, she could feel that Damon was standing right behind her. She rolled her eyes and turned around with folded arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering if there's other things you can change about yourself besides your age." Damon answered, grinning widely.

"If you're wondering if I can get bigger boobs, then no. I can only change my age."

Cosette went back to her 20-year-old self and noticed that Damon was staring a little too long. She blushed and changed back to her 17-year-old self and walked past him.

"That guy who stabbed you… was he a vampire?"

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked over her shoulder. "Yes, he was. His name is Phillip."

"Why did he stab you? You bit him in the ass or something?"

Cosette didn't answer, but just walked outside to the cold weather. The snow had started melting and was dripping down from the trees. The cold wind still hurt her cheeks, but she didn't mind it and continued staring at the snow covered trees and bushes.

It was eerily quiet outside and reminded her of the day when she first met Elijah in Paris 1245. She spending some time in France at a very fine duke and during one of her late night trips in the woods, she came across Elijah, who was drinking the blood of a young woman. She remembered how funny she thought it looked, because he was being careful of not spilling any blood on himself, while she didn't care if she was soaked in blood when she was done…

"What else can you do besides transforming into animals?" Damon suddenly asked.

Cosette wasn't startled to see him standing right beside her, because she had a feeling that he was curious of how he could use her in his favor to get Katherine back.

"I can make you think that you're five years old," Cosette said without taking her eyes off the snow covered landscape. "And do just about everything a witch can plus many other things."

"So you can unlock a tomb with 27 vampires?"

Cosette finally looked at him and saw the hopeful look in his eyes. She wanted so badly to tell him that Katherine wasn't in the tomb and she might not even care about him since she never visited him after he became a vampire, but if she did that he would leave to find her and she might not see him again. She ended up nodding and made Damon smile of joy. He genuinely loved Katherine like Phillip loved her and it hurt because she liked him.

"I'm sorry, I have to go!" Cosette sad and transformed into an eagle before Damon could stop her.

She flew away as fast as she could and tried her best ignoring the twinge in her heart. She didn't know where to go or when she would fly back, but she just couldn't handle looking Damon in his eyes right now. She needed to busy herself with something else, so she looked for any animal, who might know where Isobel was.

The sooner she found Katherine, the sooner she could leave and continue her life as a lone wolf. In her old life she didn't have to worry about love and only had herself to worry about.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	6. Isobel

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the many reviews, faves, and alerts! ^_^**

**Here's chap 6 - enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 6:

Cosette returned in the middle of the night, smeared in animal blood from head to toe. She walked inside the house still in her wolf form and transformed back to her nude form when she reached the fire place. She sat in silence and just stared at the glistening, warm fire for a moment and enjoyed the silence. She had been out all day, looking for Isobel, searching for any clues of where Katherine was, and whether or not she should take the risk and tell Damon that Katherine wasn't in the tomb.

Cosette didn't want him to leave town just so he could find the one he truly loved, but she couldn't stand watching him so obsessed with a vampire, who didn't even care about him. In frustration she had attacked several animals and killed them brutally and she even came across a couple that was just outside in the woods on a little romantic walk together…

"Hopefully that is animal blood because if it's not, then the police is going to get very suspicious…" Damon said a few feet away from her and chuckled darkly.

Cosette was silent, so his chuckle faded away and he slowly walked up to the pool of blood from her body that she was sitting in.

"She's not in the tomb," Cosette said softly, making Damon raise an eyebrow. "Katherine… she was never in there."

"How do you know that?" Damon asked suspiciously.

Cosette looked down at her bloody hands and watched as a drop of blood fell from her hand. She felt numb inside and didn't know why she was telling Damon the truth. She just felt like she had to.

"I went inside the tomb. She wasn't there." she answered.

Damon became silent now and didn't say a word for a long time. But then he sighed, handed her a blanket she could use to cover her body, and handed her a glass of Bourbon. He poured up another glass for himself and sat down next to her, leaning his back against the armchair. He watched Cosette as she slurped down the content in one large swig before he could even take a sip of his glass.

"Why did Phillip stab you? Weren't you two partners or something like that?" he asked, pouring more Bourbon in her glass.

Cosette sighed heavily and took swig of her glass before she reluctantly answered: "We… were more than just friends. He asked me to marry him, but… I said no."

Damon frowned. "Why?"

She finally looked at him and felt another twinge in her heart. She knew that she had to leave soon before he was going to break her heart without knowing it. She had to go back to her old life where love wasn't something that bothered her as much as it did right now.

"Because… there's someone else I love. But none of it matters anymore…" Cosette looked away and sighed. "The man I love… loves someone else and doesn't even know how I feel about him. Love can be so complicated. I know it all too well."

Cosette finished her drink and let the blanket drop to the floor when she stood up and began walking out of the living room. Damon quickly ran up in front of her, but he kept his eyes on hers.

"You should go to bed. You're drunk and–"

"No, I can't be here," she interrupted, tears brimming in her eyes. "I… need to focus on why I came here and I can't do that when… Goodbye, Damon. Tell Stefan that I'm sorry for leaving and… I hope that you will find the girl you love."

Cosette tried leaving, but Damon grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into his embrace. She wrapped her arms tightly around him and wanted to stay like this for a little longer, but she was reminded of the last time she fell hopelessly in love with a man and that made her transform into a white dog and run away as fast as she could out of the house. She left town and continued her search for Katherine, pushing all her emotions away and ignoring the pain she felt inside her.

However, as she ran down the dark, long roads in her panther form, she noticed dark shadows in the corner of her eyes and could sense that someone was following her. She picked up her pace and ran as fast as she could, but the prickling feeling in the back of her neck stayed. Therefore, she stopped and swiftly turned into a large tiger, turning around and growling at the person, who stood behind her – only to find out that it was the person she was looking for.

Isobel.

Cosette changed back to her human form and Isobel tossed her her jacket to cover her up and keep her human body warm. She then walked up to her with calm steps with an emotionless expression on her face that Cosette had seen many times before on other new vampires.

"It is an honor to meet you, _Necahual_…" Isobel said politely. "I have heard that you are in need of my help… that you are looking for an old friend of yours."

It had been a very long time since anyone had ever called her by the epithet she got after she fled her hometown just before she was sacrificed to the goddess _Chimalman_. It meant 'survivor'.

"Friend… yes. Do you know where Katerina is? I know that she is not in the tomb with the other vampires." Cosette said.

Isobel nodded and signed for Cosette to follow her to the nearest town. They swiftly got to her grand home where two young humans were walking around in their underwear and cleaning the house. Cosette ignored their presence and merely followed Isobel to her living room where she poured two glasses with red wine mixed with human blood. She took a sip of her own glass and couldn't stop herself from smiling of the taste of fresh human blood on her tongue.

"Katherine… last time I saw her, she was in New York, planning something as usual," Isobel said. "But there is something I need to tell you. I have heard _rumors_ of Klaus looking for you. I don't know where he is and I don't want to know it either, but I thought you should know this."

Klaus…

Cosette smiled weakly. It was a long time since she had talked with Klaus too. She still remembered their meeting in 1132 where he attacked her to drink her blood, but he was surprised when he felt that she was about as strong as him and when she turned into one of her many animal forms.

Although, Cosette knew who he was and what he was, then she wasn't scared of him nor did she want to kill him. They became lovers and went on a killing spree together the next couple of years, enjoying life and not caring about a thing in the world. It was back when she was still hurt of what her true love had done and didn't care about anyone at all but herself.

"Do you know why he is looking for me?" Cosette asked.

Isobel shook her head. "But then again… it is just rumors," she said. "However, there is something I need to ask you. You have just been in Mystic Falls, correct?"

Cosette nodded.

"Did you meet my daughter, Elena Gilbert?"

Cosette could hear that Isobel was worried for her daughter and even though she had no idea of that Elena was actually Isobel's daughter, then it did make sense. After all, Isobel _was_ one of the descendants of Katerina Petrova.

"I did. She's fine," she said. "She looks just like Katherine. They must be doppelgangers, don't you think?"

Isobel's eyes widened slightly, but she nodded and smiled weakly. Cosette took another sip of the delicious red wine and inhaled the scent of blood. The smell calmed her down and made her think of other things and forget the pain. She had always found hunting very relaxing and human blood was like… cakes to humans. It was simply irresistible and tasted as sweet as sugar.

"Well, I must go then. Your help is much appreciated."

Cosette finished her glass and transformed into her favorite form – a wolf. She ran alone along the roads, until she reached Harrisonburg where she chose to find shelter for the night. She needed some clothes and she mostly needed a bath, so she transformed into a blackbird and went inside an open window on the second floor that led to a teenage boy's bedroom. She quietly transformed back to her naked form and opened one of the drawers of his dresser where she found a pair of tight, black pants, a long white shirt, and a thick sweater she could use.

Cosette went back down to his backyard and jumped into the swimming pool even though the water was freezing cold. She washed the blood off, dried herself with an old and worn blanket she found in the garage, and got dressed before she hurried to the nearest motel.

At the motel she stole a proper pair of women boots to keep her feet warm and a long coat and used her magic on the motel manager to let her stay in one of his rooms without having to pay. She was exhausted, cold, and sleepy, so she didn't hesitate to go to bed and slept peacefully through the whole night and following morning.

It was first when it became afternoon that Cosette woke up well rested and full of new energy and she discretely left the motel while the manager was busy enjoying his lunch. She walked down the snowy streets of Harrisonburg, looking closely for a car she could steal, so she wouldn't have to run again. She didn't care what she stole as long as the doors were unlocked and the car of course could drive.

"_You need a ride, Cossie?_" she suddenly heard a voice say.

Cosette stopped dead in her tracks and felt a cold shiver run down her spine. She didn't need to hear that voice twice to know who it was. There was only one person in the world who called her 'Cossie' and that person had tried to kill her a few days ago. She turned to Phillip, who sat in his warm Lamborghini, and could see sadness in his eyes.

"I know you hate me and probably want to kill me, but… I want to apologize for what I did. I was just so… frustrated. I love you so much, Cos, and want you to be mine. Only mine. Is that too much to ask for?" Phillip asked.

Cosette knew that she would always be loved by Phillip, but it wasn't true love what they had because she didn't return his love. But as much as she liked being on her own, then she still had human needs and one of those needs involved having male company. So as wrong as it felt, then she stepped inside his car and let him press his warm lips softly against her cold cheek.

"Aren't you going to say anything? At all?" he asked quietly.

"What do you want me to say? That I love you and want to spend the rest of my eternity with you? I'll tell you whatever you want to hear, but you won't be sure if I'm telling the truth or not." Cosette answered truthfully.

Phillip sighed and took her hand to his lips. "I only want you to love me, Cossie. That's all I'm asking from you. I know that I'm still_ promiscuous _as you put it, but I'll change that for you."

Cosette sighed heavily and finally met his blue-grey eyes. "Okay. I will give you a chance, but don't think I'm forgiving you that easily for stabbing me!"

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	7. Yaotl

**A/N: Hii, and thank you so much for the many reviews I got :D **

**Here's chap 7 - enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 7:

Phillip was fast asleep when Cosette woke up in the middle of the night for the third time and rubbed her tired eyes that felt heavy even though she couldn't sleep properly that night. She gave up and chose to get herself a glass of water. She quietly left the bedroom of Phillip's apartment in New York and walked in to the kitchen. She fetched a glass and filled it with cold water, but when she went to take a sip of it, she saw a dark figure pass by and knew that someone was in the apartment.

"Can't sleep?" she heard a familiar voice say.

Cosette turned around and found Phillip seated at the dinner table in his underwear. He smoothed his messy dark blond hair with his hand and kicked out a chair for her to sit on. She took a seat opposite him and finally took a sip of the water.

"No, I keep dreaming about…" Cosette bit her bottom lip nervously and sighed. "It's nothing."

"Nothing? It didn't sound like nothing. Who is _Yaotl_?" Phillip asked.

Cosette felt her heart beat faster when she heard that name. She closed her eyes and pictured his handsome face that she used to sigh of whenever she saw him walk by her home. His dark brown eyes, soft dark brown curls, and masculine jaw reminded her of a God in its human form and like a God he was greatly admired. He was a warrior and had fought many battles before he even turned 20 and was known to be the most fearful warrior in his hometown.

And then she caught his eyes and he wondered how a girl could have such white hair, such hazel eyes, and such pale skin when everyone else was dark skinned like himself. She lived outside his hometown in the deep forests with her parents, who were both dark skinned as well.

One day he went into the forest to find the vicious animal that had been attacking travelers recently and found her swimming around in a lake like a beautiful nymph. She caught him staring and at that day both of their lives had changed dramatically…

"Cossie?" Phillip said firmly, taking Cosette's attention away from her memories.

Cosette opened her eyes and noticed that Phillip was still waiting for his answer. She sighed heavily and finished her glass before she stood up.

"No one…" she said and walked back to their bedroom. She didn't even reach the bed before he stood in front of her and pressed her body to the wall behind her. He had his arms on the wall on either side of her to keep her from leaving again and looked straight into her hazel eyes. "I'm not going to tell you anything about my past, Phillip. It's _my_ past."

"I know and I'm not going to force you to tell me about it, but I hate to see you so sad," he said and gently pressed his lips against hers. Cosette wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, wanting so badly to forget about her past. She pushed all her emotions away and let Phillip get what he had been wanting so badly the last 250 years or so. "Are you sure?"

Cosette nodded and kissed him again this time more passionately. She closed her eyes and pictured Damon in front of her instead. The hunger inside her of feeling the touch of Damon's fingers on her body made her let go of all control. She pushed him down on the bed and sunk her nails into his shoulders as sat down on his waist and let her lips collide with his. She could feel his fangs extend and when one of them grazed her bottom lip, she tasted her own blood.

Phillip suddenly rolled her over and got on top of her, swiftly removing the pieces of fabric that kept him from touching her soft and smooth skin. Cosette removed the fabric on him too and let her fingers touch every inch of his muscular upper body where a tattoo of a malicious looking snake that bit its own tail was.

_The Ouroboros_, Cosette thought and remembered that she herself had a tattoo on her body. She actually had more than one, but it was the one on her arm that really mattered. It was the one tattoo she never asked for, but got anyway against her own will. _When will this pain inside me go away? When will I be able to love without being betrayed? Is anyone truly able to love me?_

Phillip moved his kisses down from her lips, to the side of her neck, down her collarbone and chest, and when he reached the tribal like tattoo on her hip, he finally stopped and met her eyes for a brief moment before he finally got what he wanted and needed.

Cosette closed her eyes and dreamt away to the night she first laid her eyes on Damon. She had met him in the woods just like she had with Yaotl, and perhaps that was the reason why he was something different from all the other men she had laid her eyes on the last thousand years.

But would that then mean that he would break her heart and sacrifice her too?

Or would she be able to finally get what _she_ truly wanted and needed?

Cosette waited until Phillip was fast asleep again before she dressed and left his apartment with a strong urge to see Damon. She walked down to the nearest phone booth and called him even though it was almost 4:00 AM. She didn't expect him to pick up the phone, but it just felt calming to her to be in contact with him without actually being in contact with him.

However, when an obviously very drunk Damon answered, Cosette froze and didn't know what to do, so she hung up and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. She sighed heavily and chose to call him again, because she knew that she couldn't keep up with this. She had to talk with him eventually.

"_Changed your mind, lovely?_" Damon asked teasingly.

"What?" Cosette answered confusedly and could hear Damon sit up on his bed.

"_Cosette? Where the hell are you? A couple of annoying vampires have been asking for you, you know._"

"But… oh… you mean Pearl?"

"_Yeah, among others. But how do you know her? And again – where are you?_"

Cosette sighed and sunk down on the floor of the phone booth. She looked outside as a few cars passed by on the road and as the snow fell once again from the sky.

"New York," she said. "With Phillip. Don't ask why I'm here with him. I just am. As for Pearl then we're old friends. But how did she get out of the tomb?"

Now it was Damon's turn to sigh and he was quiet for a little while. The only thing Cosette could hear was the sound of his breathing.

"_I wanted to check if Katherine truly wasn't inside the tomb and… I should have listened to you,_" Damon said._ "She wasn't there and now some of the vampires in the tomb are free. They're pissed at us and are trying to take back 'their' town._"

"Oh… so basically everything is falling apart?"

Damon chuckled dryly. "_Yeah, something like it. I kindda hoped that you would come back, but you didn't exactly leave a phone number or anything and now you're apparently back with that dick!_"

Cosette smiled weakly. "You… want me to come back?"

"_It would be nice with a little help, yeah. If you can release yourself from Philly… I seriously don't understand why you would go back to him. He's an ass and tried to kill you!_"

The smile on Cosette's lips faded away again. It was precisely because of him that she had left. She wanted to be with him, but not while he was still madly in love with Katherine.

"It's not that simple, Damon… I don't have any family or close friends I can go to now besides Phillip."

They both became quiet and didn't say a word for a very long time. When Cosette finally opened her mouth to say something, she was interrupted by the sound of a woman telling her to put more quarters in the phone if she wanted to talk some more. She hung up and stepped outside the phone booth, looking back and forth from the road to Virginia to Phillip's apartment. She made her choice and looked for a car she could steal which she then used to drive back to Virginia with.

The trip back was long and quiet, but Cosette needed some peace and tried ignoring all her thoughts about what Phillip was going to say when he woke up, if Damon was going to understand how she felt about him, and of course of what was going to happen with her in the future.

She drove all night and the following morning and afternoon, but when it became nightfall once again, she finally arrived in Mystic Falls and discarded the stolen car. She walked to the Mystic Grill first to see if Damon was there and found him seated at the bar with a glass of Bourbon, flirting with a random woman.

When Damon spotted Cosette at the door, he told the woman something that offended her and made her leave, so the seat next to him was unoccupied. He ordered a drink for her and seemed awfully calm tonight as if something was going on that Cosette didn't know anything about.

"Thanks for coming, but hopefully you didn't bring that dickhead with you, did you?" Damon asked.

"No, he doesn't even know where I am and I want it to stay that way…" Cosette said coldly, making Damon raise an eyebrow and look worriedly at her for a moment. "You said that some of the vampires from the tomb got out…?"

Damon nodded. "We killed the nastiest one, but now Elena's uncle is back in town and he knows what Stefan and I are. I tried to kill him, but he just came back."

Cosette frowned of that, but then she realized how Elena's uncle had done it. "He has a resurrection ring. They're very useful if you piss the wrong vampires or witches off."

"What about you? Can you kill him?"

Cosette shrugged. "I might be able to make his ring useless, but then I would have to get my hands on it and that is going to become difficult."

Damon nodded in agreement and took a swig of his glass. "Cosette… There's something else I need your help with. It's Stefan. I think he's drinking human blood again and I know that he can't handle it, so I would be thankful if you could help keep an eye on him."

"Of course. I will do whatever I can. It's not like I have something better to do now that I know that Katherine isn't anywhere nearby…"

She sighed and emptied the content of her glass. She should be happy about being back, but she wasn't because she was back where all her problems began and still didn't know what she wanted. Even if she told Damon the truth, then he wouldn't necessarily feel the same way about her or they wouldn't be together for long. And then there was of course also Katherine, who was still on his mind.

"Cosette…" Damon said softly, taking her attention away from the empty glass in her hand. "That other guy you're in love with… who is he?"

Cosette wanted to answer, but the fear of being betrayed again scared her more than anything in this world. She might be powerful and very old, but she was still partly human and her human side was horrible when it came to love. That was why she rarely showed herself in her human form and spent more time in the wild as an animal.

"That's not so important, Damon," she said and tried to smile, so he wouldn't notice just how lonely she was feeling. "But let's focus on something that is important like how to fix this mess you've made."

Damon snorted even though he knew that it was his entire fault…

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	8. Fool

**A/N: Hii, I really should be doing my homework right now but... I can't help it! I'm addicted to writing xD**

**Thanks for the reviews - enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 8:

_Monte Albán, 950 A.D. _

_Yaotl stared in disbelief at the pale skinned girl and took a step closer to the edge to get a better view of her. She swam carelessly around in the lake along with the poisonous sea snakes and did not seem to be afraid of them and they were not afraid of her as well. He cocked his head a bit to the side and wondered how such an amazing creature could exist in the world he lived in. The human-looking girl had beautiful hazel eyes and long, pale blond hair, and there were ancient symbols on her nude body that he remembered seeing before in the temples._

_However, when the girl suddenly stopped swimming and moved her gaze to him, Yaotl was too stunned to move away or take his eyes off hers. He felt his cheeks become warm and slowly a smile formed on the girl's full lips. He could not stop himself from smiling too and stepped out from behind the bushes, completely forgetting that he was standing on the edge of the hill, and he fell into the water with a loud splash. _

_Yaotl knew how to swim, but he was more worried about the large fish he saw in the water with the sharp teeth, so he hurried up to the surface and saw that the girl was now right in front of him. He was still too stunned to move or to say a word, but when he spotted the fin of the large fish coming up from the water a few feet away from them, his eyes widened and he quickly grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her up to the shore just before the fish could set its teeth into them._

_But the girl was not frightened of the sight of the fish nor was she embarrassed of standing next to him without any clothes on her body. Yaotl felt his cheeks flush even more when he finally noticed that she was still nude and he quickly turned his back to her out of respect._

"_Why were you swimming in the lake, Miss?" he asked curiously._

"_Why not?" she answered much to his confusion. _

_He was tempted to turn around, but the girl walked up to him instead and stood in front of him, dressed in a simple white dress. Yaotl sighed in relief but felt somewhat disappointed too._

"_You could have been killed." he said in a more serious tone now._

"_Killed? That creature is a friend of mine. It would not have hurt me at all. It was merely attracted to the meat in your bag. Look!" The girl pointed towards the lake where Yaotl saw the large fish devour the content of his bag. He felt more embarrassed now, but remained calm and kept his posture. "I think you owe someone an apology."_

_Yaotl snorted. "I am not apologizing to a fish! Besides, it ate my lunch so I think we are even."_

_The girl giggled and shook her head of him. She began walking back into the forest, so he quickly followed her in case she knew anything about the attacks in the forest._

"_What is your name, Miss? And how come I have never seen you in the area before?" Yaotl asked wonderingly._

_The girl smiled and suddenly stopped walking. "Sacnite," she said beautifully and giggled again. "And you are the brave Yaotl, who once fought a black bear and won… I must admit that you are taller than I pictured."_

* * *

><p>"Cosette!" a familiar voice yelled, waking Cosette abruptly up from her dream. She only managed to sit up and rub her tired eyes before she suddenly felt Elena's arms around her. "Thank you so much for returning! We went to the tomb and opened it, but Katherine–"<p>

"Wasn't there. I know," Cosette said and sighed heavily. She couldn't stop herself from smiling by the thought of the dream she had. Yaotl… it had been such a long time since she had talked with him and even after how he broke her heart, she couldn't stop thinking about him and about how much she loved him. "Elena, there's something important I want to talk with you about. I'm–"

Damon walked in to the guestroom with a glass of blood in his hand. "Cosette, Pearl's daughter is here. She wants to talk with you." he said.

Cosette sighed, but stepped out of the bed and walked with him downstairs where Annabelle or "Anna" as she preferred nowadays stood. Anna's eyes widened at the sight of her mother's old friend, but she remained calm and greeted her.

"My mother sent me to tell you that she wants to meet up with you," she said. "She wants to talk with you about Katherine."

"Oh… does she know where she is?" Cosette asked worriedly.

Anna shook her head. "Mother… she hates Katherine for what she did to her. But there is also something else _we_ need to talk with you about. It's about Yaotl."

Cosette froze when she heard the name and her heart began beating faster rapidly. Damon looked confusedly at her, so she quickly took Anna's hand and led her outside where they could talk together more privately.

"What about him?" she asked seriously.

"While we stayed in Mystic Falls, a young man came to my mother's apothecary and asked her if she knew anything about where _you_ were. He called you by your true name and said that he was searching for you. My mother asked him of whom he was and he just said that if you ever came, then she should tell you that _Yaotl_ was looking for you." Anna explained.

Cosette sighed and tried understand what was going on. She knew that Yaotl couldn't still be alive, because he was a simple human and nothing more. But if Pearl still remembered how the young man looked like, then she might be able to identify him as Yaotl or know if it was just some man, who knew about their history.

"Tell your mother to meet me at the Mystic Grill at 12:00." Cosette simply said.

Anna nodded understandingly and left the boarding house, while Cosette went back inside to Damon, who was obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. She didn't say anything to him, but walked past him and in to the kitchen to get herself a glass of blood. She only managed to take one sip of her glass and turn around before Damon suddenly stood in front of her with an apprehensive expression on his face.

"Yaotl?" he said questioningly.

"None of your business," Cosette said and tried walking past him again, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. She could feel her blood boil inside her and her heart beat faster. She wasn't just nervous because she was in his presence, but also because she didn't want to talk with him about her past. It was something she rarely brought up and if she did it was only because she had to. Not because she wanted to. "It's my past, Damon. It's for the better if none of you interfere with it."

"That might be, but you know about Stefan and my past, so don't you think you owe to us to tell us about yours? I mean, the only thing we know about you is that you're a shape shifter. A very old shape shifter to be precise."

"But there's nothing to talk about! I fell in love with him, he broke my heart, and I was almost sacrificed because of it. End of story. Now let go of me or I'll bite your head off."

Damon was quiet for a moment, but then he let go of her and she walked back up to the guestroom to change her clothes. She regretted telling Damon what Yaotl did to her, but now he might understand why she didn't want to talk about her past and acted like she did about love.

When Cosette walked back down to apologize for snapping at him, she couldn't find him anywhere downstairs. She went back upstairs and looked for him and found him inside his bedroom. She had never been to his bedroom before and was surprised to see how simple and modern it was compared to the rest of the rooms of the house.

It had a big king-size bed that was literally fit for a king and the room had its own private bathroom with a beautiful standalone bathtub, a roomy shower where at least two persons could take a shower at the same time, and a stack of books that Cosette never imagined that Damon would read. She moved her attention away from the room and saw Damon standing at his window with an old photography of Katherine.

"He was my first true love," she said softly. "But he found his position and reputation more worth saving than his love to me. I haven't been able to love anyone ever since. Not before now."

"Ah, yes. The mystery man you're in love with, who's in love with someone else. It's not Stefan, is it? You can tell me. I'm awesome at keeping secrets!" Damon said, placing the picture on his nightstand and lying down on his bed.

Cosette blushed, but sat down beside him one the bed. "No, it's not Stefan. It's…"

They were interrupted by the sound of Stefan coming home and Cosette was reminded of that she had a meeting with Pearl soon. She sighed, but stepped off the bed and swiftly ran her fingers through her messy morning hair to flatten it a bit. She was on her way to leave, but she suddenly felt her body being pinned to the wall by no other than Damon himself. He held her arms up and against the wall and his body was pressed so close to her body that Cosette was sure that he could feel her heart beat rapidly against her chest.

"There's something you need to know before you leave, Cosette…" he said softly, his lips so close to hers that they gently touched each other when he spoke. "The man you're in love with is a fool for not realizing that he's missing out on such a beautiful girl like you."

"If that's true then you're a fool, Damon." Cosette said softly without thinking of what she had just done.

Damon smirked teasingly, though, and seemed like he already knew the truth. "I know. I just wanted to see if I could make a 1000 year old shape shifter to admit that she's completely and utterly in love with the eternal stud Damon Salvatore."

Cosette blushed, but when she tried protesting to what he'd said, he suddenly pressed his lips against hers and she felt like she had been hit by lightening. She kissed him back passionately and fiercely and enjoyed the sweet, but metallic taste of blood on his tongue.

Damon's grip around her wrists loosened up and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeper and more fervently. She began remembering the first kiss she shared with Yaotl and that memory stopped her from going any further with Damon. She moved her hands to his muscular chest and gently pushed him away.

"I have a meeting with Pearl," she said even though that wasn't the real reason why she stopped him. "But feel free to gloat over your achievement as long as you don't mention anything to Phillip. I don't think he'll be that pleased about you winning over him."

Damon chuckled and when he leaned in to give her another kiss, she quickly held up her hand so he kissed that instead. She giggled and left his bedroom much to his annoyance. Cosette was mildly surprised over how the day turned out and she wondered what would have happened if she hadn't gone to his room or even confirmed his suspicion.

However, on Cosette's way out she was stopped once again by Damon, but not because he wanted to give her a ride and get a drink at the Grill. Cosette had a feeling that it was just an excuse for him to eavesdrop on her conversation with Pearl, but she didn't mind it. She wanted Damon to know more about her past and if Yaotl truly was still alive, then she didn't want to hide that from him.

"You're still a fool, you know," Cosette said teasingly, making Damon raise an eyebrow. "You should have stopped me before I left. Why didn't you?"

Damon snorted and took her hand in his. She smiled at the warmth of his skin and wondered if she was doing the right thing by giving him a chance.

"I was a huge fool, I realize that now. But you didn't exactly help me find out that you liked me. You're the most secretive girl I've ever met, but that's what I like about you."

Cosette giggled. "Yeah, well it's not _everyone_ who's a stud like you."

Damon smirked. "Correction: eternal and _very_ smoking hot stud!"

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	9. Unresolved Feelings

**A/N: Hiii, thanks for the reviews and I promise that there will come a lot more Damon/OC limey scences in the next couple of chapters :D**

**I'll update again tonight/tomorrow if I get 3-5 reviews ;D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 9:

Pearl was waiting at the Grill as agreed and had already ordered something to drink for both of them much to Cosette's joy. She could really need a drink after hearing that Yaotl was looking for her, but she was most of all happy about seeing her old friend alive. Pearl seemed surprised to see Cosette when she walked inside, but it was only because Cosette looked a few years younger than Pearl remembered. She still got up to greet her and while they hugged Cosette noticed that Damon walked in and found a seat nearby at the bar. She smiled weakly and turned her focus back to why she came.

"Your daughter told me that you had an interesting encounter in 1864…" she said as they took a seat at the table. She took a sip of the red wine and could taste the sweet taste of human blood. The smile on her lips widened and she gave a secretive nod to Pearl, who understood perfectly what she meant by doing so. "The young man who came to your apothecary… how did he look?"

"Like you described Yaotl. Dark hair, brown eyes, bronze skin, and he even have a tattoo your true name written in Nahuatl on his wrist," Pearl said and took a sip of her wine glass. "He looked about 22-23, so whatever happened to him then he never aged since you last met him. I only looked away for one minute and then he was gone, so I never had the chance to ask if he was who I thought he was. But I think he's looking for you, because he regrets his decision."

"That's a little too late to do. He made his decision and that can't be changed now. I don't care even if he finds me, because I moved on a long time ago."

That was a lie, but Cosette couldn't admit that she still missed him and had unanswered questions she needed him to answer, so she could finally move on and forget about him. She meant it when she said that he made his decision and couldn't just change that after 1000 years. She did give him a chance to change his choice and run away with her and even though he did say yes, then it was only so he could lure her in the direction of the temple where the king's guards stood ready to capture her.

"Do you have any idea of what he's turned into? Could he have become a vampire or…?" Pearl asked worriedly.

"Maybe… I'm not sure. But he can't be a vampire, because they were first created about 50 or 60 years later. However, if he made a deal with a shaman, then he might have become a creature like me or something else just as powerful…" Cosette answered and sighed.

She looked towards Damon's direction and frowned when she saw a woman with big breasts talk flirtatiously with him. She wanted to transform into a wolf and bite her head off, but that would without a doubt cause too much of a scene and she would most likely get herself shot by the police. She decided to use her powers instead and made the cup of coffee in the woman's hand explode. She jolted up from her seat and quickly went to the women restroom to dry her coffee soaked shirt.

Damon frowned and turned his gaze towards Cosette with a grin on his face. Cosette smirked and turned her gaze back to Pearl, who had her eyes on someone special. She turned her gaze towards the direction Pearl was looking at and saw an unfamiliar man, who was talking with the mayor's wife.

"Who is he?" she asked curiously.

"Johnathan Gilbert," Pearl answered without taking her eyes off him. "He's in the Council and Elena Gilbert's uncle. We need to keep an eye on him."

Cosette nodded understandingly and now knew who she had to get the ring from. She wondered whether or not she should introduce herself just to check if he knew what she was. She left the table before Pearl could protest and went up to the table, which immediately seemed to catch both Mrs. Lockwood's and John's attention.

"Hello, I've heard that you are the mayor's wife. It's an honor to meet you," Cosette said, trying to sound like an excited normal girl. "My name is Cosette. I just moved here a few days ago."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Cosette," Mrs. Lockwood said, smiling brightly and offered her hand to shake. Cosette shook it and when she touched her hand she was able to enter Mrs. Lockwood's mind. She could see everything the woman knew about vampires and luckily for Cosette, she didn't know anything about what she was. She also saw something about a contest where a lucky girl would become this year's Miss Mystic Falls. "This is Johnathan Gilbert."

"Oh, yes I've heard about you. You're Elena's uncle, aren't you?" Cosette shook his hand too and was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn't know what she was either, but he was suspecting that she was a supernatural being of some sort. Cosette turned her attention back to Mrs. Lockwood. "Mrs. Lockwood, I was wondering if there's still time for me to enter the Miss Mystic Falls pageant..."

"Ah, yes. Of course. Are you related to any of the founding families?"

"No, I'm not, but that won't be a problem, will it? I mean, the only relation I have to a founding family is that my mother used to be a good friend of yours. Her name is Penelope Wolfe." Cosette placed a thought in Mrs. Lockwood's head of that she once had a childhood friend named Penelope Wolfe and that made her shake her head to her question.

"The course begins tomorrow, but I will personally enlist you. Please say hello to your mother from me. It's a long time since we've talked."

Cosette smiled, thanked Mrs. Lockwood, and walked back to the table Pearl was seated at. She could tell that Pearl wasn't sure of whether she should be concerned or happy about what she just did.

"You're just as reckless as I remember," Pearl said, chuckling softly. Cosette smiled brighter and giggled. "But I'll try to call you with my new strange phone if I hear anything about Yaotl. Until then I wish you good luck with the pageant."

Pearl gave Cosette another hug and left the Grill and Damon immediately occupied the empty seat opposite her. He looked like he had many questions, but Cosette was open to answer all of them. Even those about her least favorite subject, who was apparently looking for her.

"You're running for Miss Mystic Falls?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and chuckled.

"Yup! And you're going to be my escort. If you can dance, that is." Cosette said and giggled.

Damon snorted. "Oh, I can dance! But you seriously want to wear a dress, high heeled stilettos, and look like a princess?"

"Not really, no, but I think it's the perfect opportunity to earn their the Council's trust and get closer to a certain someone named John, don't you think?"

"I like your way of thinking. And if we're lucky we can get close enough to John to get his damn ring off and take him down before he gets to us."

Cosette nodded. "So… you want to be my escort?"

Damon didn't answer, but merely gave her a kiss on her cheek before he left. Cosette hoped that he was going to be there for her, because she couldn't imagine anyone else being there with her. She left the Mystic Grill and went shopping for an expensive and beautiful dress that she would most likely only wear to the ball. She never did like wearing dresses and especially to fancy parties where she had to act like a "lady" and have good manners.

While Cosette was out shopping and minding her own business, she noticed that an unfamiliar man was following her through town and wondered if someone had sent the man to follow her or if she was just starting to become paranoid.

But when the sun was starting to go down and Cosette was on her way home, she walked into an empty and dark alley and quickly hid herself, so she could check if she truly was being followed. The man walked into the alley as she expected and looked for her. She noticed that he was armed with a knife that had been soaked with wolfsbane. He thought that she was a werewolf and might have seen her somewhere else in her wolf form or changing from her wolf form to her human form.

Quietly, Cosette changed to her wolf form and prepared herself to attack him, but just as she was about to jump, she suddenly heard a sound coming from behind her and turned around to face a man she did know.

It was Yaotl and the sight of him made her freeze on the spot.

She completely forgot about the man behind her, but Yaotl suddenly moved his lingering gaze from her and transformed into a large, dark brown wolf. He jumped on the man behind her and swiftly ripped the man's head clean off. But when Yaotl turned his gaze back towards Cosette, she was already gone and running as fast as she could in her dog form back to the boarding house.

Cosette burst into the house and startled Damon, who was just about to pour himself a drink when she arrived. He swiftly caught the glass and watched as she ran up the stairs and into her room. Cosette dressed herself, but she didn't go downstairs to Damon. She sat like a statue on the bed and just stared blankly out in the air. She was stunned by the fact that she had just seen the man, who once betrayed her over a millennium ago. She knew that they were going to meet some day, but she didn't expect it to happen that fast.

The look in Yaotl's warm, dark brown eyes when he looked at her made the unresolved feelings inside her come back. She wanted to hug him and feel his lips on hers again, but she still remembered what he did to her. Pearl had been right about some things, though, because he looked just like she remembered, but now his hair just went to his shoulders and he of course had that tattoo on his wrist that Pearl talked about.

"Cosette?" Damon said worriedly.

Cosette looked up and blushed rapidly. She had completely forgotten about Damon and felt embarrassed for still being in love with her first love.

"I… I forgot my new dress," she said and chuckled dryly. Damon raised an eyebrow and walked up to her, because he could tell that something was wrong with her. "Do you think I could borrow one from Elena or Caroline?"

"Caroline, no, Elena, maybe," Damon said and chuckled darkly. He gently stroked her cheek and made her look into his eyes. "Did something happen after I left?"

Cosette opened her mouth to lie, but she couldn't get herself to do it. She sighed heavily and looked down at her hands.

"I... met Yaotl. I think he's a nagual too now and… he saved me from a werewolf hunter, who was going to kill me."

"Oh… Did he say something?"

Cosette shook her head. "I ran away. I don't want to meet him, Damon. I gave him everything and he threw it back in my face."

Damon muttered what something like a curse to Cosette, but she didn't blame him for being angry. She was angry too and wanted closure instead of living with all this confusion about her emotions.

"Just forget about him. He had his chance and now it's too late. I'm here, remember?" he said.

Cosette smiled and felt his lips press against hers. She felt a rush of adrenaline shoot through her body and instinctively sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. She pushed him down and enjoyed the touch of his soft lips against hers. A soft moan escaped her mouth when he rolled her under him and moved his hand delicately up under the fabric of her shirt…

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	10. Love

**A/N: Wauw, thanks for the many reviews! :D**

**Here's chap 10 as promised with lime scenes! ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 10:

Damon kissed Cosette's exposed skin on the side of her neck as he slowly pulled her shirt over her head and threw it away. His extended fangs gently grazed her skin and reminded her of the first time she was bitten by a vampire. She remembered the pain, but she also remembered the sense of pleasure she felt later. She tightened her arms around Damon's bare, muscular, and smooth upper body and sunk her nails into his skin when his fangs penetrated her skin.

"Someone's getting turned on…" Cosette said teasingly and giggled.

Damon chuckled against her skin and licked the remaining blood residue off her neck. His lips met hers again and the rush of adrenaline returned to Cosette's body. She could feel her heart pounding hard against my ribs and let my hand run gently over Damon's heart. She touched his hard abs delicately as her fingers moved down to the button of his black pants and met his eyes for a brief moment before she unbuttoned it.

A deep moan escaped Cosette's mouth as she felt Damon move his soft kisses down her exposed skin and over the ancient tattoos on her body. He stopped when he noticed the tattoo on her arm that she never wanted and looked wonderingly at her.

"I'm guessing that these tattoos aren't normal," he said, grinning widely. "What does this one mean?"

Cosette closed her eyes and wished that Damon had asked her of any of the other tattoos. She was fine with him asking her about all the others except for the one on her arm. But she opened her eyes again and looked at the tattoo on her arm.

"It means demon," she said quietly "I got it before the ceremony where they were going to sacrifice me to Chimalman began."

Damon sighed heavily, but continued the sweet kisses, until he came to where the tattoo of her true name in Nahuatl was. Her father had made it for her on her 16th birthday and it reminded her of all the good things about her past.

"If it's to any consolation, then I've been called demon a dozen of times," Damon said, making Cosette giggle and pull him close to her again. She kissed him passionately and enjoyed the touch of his fingers moving up her bare leg, until they reached the hem of her panties. "It's just a guess, but you're no virgin. Am I right?"

Cosette snorted. "Of course not! I've lived for 1000 and something years, but let's see if you can live up to my expectations." she said teasingly and winked flirtatiously.

Damon smirked, but when he let his pants drop to the floor and crawled back up on the bed, they could both hear Elena calling for Cosette. He groaned and muttered a curse, but he wasn't the only one to be annoyed about being interrupted.

"Let's play a normal couple and wait a bit… or at least until we're somewhere more private," Cosette said as she got her clothes back on. Damon didn't comment on that, but when she tried leaving the bed, he quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down on the mattress and held her arms pinned to it, which only made her giggle again. "What? You're going to force me to stay?"

"As tempting as it sounds, then no," he said and gave her a lingering kiss. "But I'm going on a little trip tonight and try looking for the device John wants. I could really need a little doggy help…"

"Doggy help? Oh, please! You just want to see me down on all fours! But fine I'll go if you behave."

Damon chuckled. "I won't. You should know that by now."

Cosette shook her head of him, but gave him one last kiss before she went downstairs to Elena, who was practicing the dance they had to do at the Miss Mystic Pageant with Stefan and fooling around like a normal couple would do. She wondered if she should let them know that she was romantically involved with Damon, but she quickly shook the thought away, because she wasn't sure if she and Damon were an actual couple yet or just dating in an untraditional way.

"What are you doing?" she asked curiously, waiting them from the end of the stairway.

"Oh, we're just practicing for the rehearsal tomorrow, which was why I called you… I heard that you're running for Miss Mystic Falls…?" Elena said confusedly.

Cosette blushed, but answered: "Oh, um, yeah… I was going to tell you that, but… don't worry. I'm not expecting or trying to win. I just want your uncle to keep thinking that I'm a normal _human_ girl and not a shape shifter. I mean, I've heard that he's not that happy about vampires and work with the Council, so…"

"Oh… well, who will be your escort then?"

Cosette blushed even more now, but managed to hide it. "Um… Damon."

"Damon?" Stefan said skeptically and couldn't stop himself from laughing. "How did you convince him to wear a suit and behave like a gentleman?"

"I don't know, but he liked my plan and he's the only one I know, who will go with me."

"You got a dress yet?" Elena asked.

Cosette shook her head and wondered what had happened to the dress she forgot in the alley. If any of the homeless people hadn't taken it, then a racoon or rat had probably taking it and used it as a house or something like it.

"It's ok. I'll help you find one or you can borrow one of my dresses. We can go shopping tomorrow after the rehearsals." Elena said.

"Thanks. I'm a little nervous about the dance part, though. I've danced many times in my life and in front of all sorts of people, but this… a pageant… that's something new."

"There's nothing to be nervous about... well, maybe only that Damon will get drunk or do something stupid and reckless." Stefan said.

Cosette chuckled, but she heard Damon descend from the stairs behind her and as he passed her on his way down, she felt him squeeze her butt, which of course made her jump a bit of surprise and glare venomously at him. He merely chuckled and continued walking in to the kitchen.

A few minutes after Cosette walked in to the kitchen too and grabbed the glass of blood he was going to drink right in front of him. He groaned loudly, but she just laughed and took a sip of the glass.

"You're definitely not normal," he said and tried taking his glass back without any luck. "Exactly how old are you again?"

"Hm… well, I was born in 932, so… 1079 I would think. What about you, you baby vamp?" Cosette asked teasingly.

Damon snorted, but thought a little about it. "168, I think. Not nearly as old as you are, but… I'm not complaining. I like women with experience."

Cosette rolled her eyes of him. "In that case then I won't have high expectations of your skills in bed."

He narrowed his eyes at her and when he suddenly went to move towards her, she quickly turned into a white cat and took off. He chased her through the whole house, until Damon finally got her when she was hiding under his bed and grabbed her by the back of her neck to hold her up in front of him. She purred and tried hitting him with her paw, but without any luck.

"I feel like saying something very pervy about this, but I'm afraid you're going to eat me if I do!" Damon said and laughed.

Cosette showed her sharp teeth and he placed her on the bed. She transformed back to her naked form, but she was lying on her stomach, so Damon could only look at her bare back.

"Damon, you know that I… I'm in love with you and I hope that you also know what that means. I'm not looking for a quick relationship and I really don't want to be with another vampire, who flaunts around with other women while we're together. Phillip did that and I knew that he would do it again. That's one of the reasons why I left him." she said in a serious tone.

Damon was quiet at first, but then he lay down next to her on his back with his arms under his head and he looked into her hazel eyes.

"I haven't had a serious relationship for decades, Cosette. I don't know how to be… well, like Saint Stefan!" he said.

"I'm not asking you to be a perfect boyfriend, Damon. I just want to know if you want to be my boyfriend and nothing more. I know that I'm very strange and secretive and that my ex-boyfriend is apparently looking for me, but I _really_ like you. You're…"

"Awesome?" Damon wiggled his eyebrows teasingly.

Cosette giggled although that wasn't the word she was looking for. "You're… _fascinating_."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating? I've been called many things, but I don't think anyone have thought of me as fascinating."

"You've never been with a nagual either, but now you are…"

Damon nodded and gently stroked her cheek with his thumb. He brushed a loose stray of her hair behind her ear and followed the line of her full lips. Cosette could sense the burning lust inside him and wanted to feel more of him too. She bit her bottom lip and felt her lips move closer to his like a he was a magnet. Their lips collided and the sweet taste of blood invoked the animal inside her. She couldn't deny the strong attraction she felt whenever they touched and neither could Damon.

The kisses became more urgent and Cosette began breathing heavier as she felt Damon's curious fingers touch all the sensitive parts of her body. He made a shiver run down her spine and made her feel like the first time she ever truly made love to someone.

When she made love to Yaotl.

The thought made Cosette's eyes open wide and she was unable to enjoy the warm, tingling feeling Damon made in her body when his lips and fingers explored every inch of it. She felt cold and stopped breathing completely.

_Are the memories of Yaotl going to keep stopping me from being happy? Will I ever forget about him? _Cosette thought and felt the tears brimming in her eyes. She gasped by the touch of Damon's bare body pressed against hers and couldn't take the pain anymore. She needed to get away. _Why can't he let me be happy? Why must he keep showing up and ruin my life?_

Cosette felt a tear trickle down her cheek and quickly wiped it away before she pushed Damon off her and almost jumped out of the bed. Away from his love and closeness.

"I'm sorry, but… I…"

Cosette shook her head and quickly transformed into her owl form. She flew out of the open window before he could stop her and left him alone in the bedroom. She hated herself for letting her old feelings for Yaotl get in the way, but she needed to forget about them. She needed closure and she was determined on getting it no matter what she had to do to get it.

Yaotl owed her the only thing that truly mattered in her life.

Love.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	11. Leverage

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews and sorry if I sometimes go all AWOL and don't update that often (I'm drowning in homework!) :D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 11:

Everyone was ready to practice the important near-touch dance except for Cosette, who sat and waited patiently for Damon to arrive. She arrived with Elena and Stefan, because Damon had a few things he needed to take care of before he arrived as well, but he promised that he _would_ come eventually and Cosette trusted that he would keep his word.

But Mrs. Lockwood was starting to become impatient, so Cosette tried calling Damon for the fifth time today. When Damon still didn't answer, she sighed heavily and signed for the others to begin without her. The guys placed themselves opposite the girls, but instead of Damon walking up to Cosette, someone else did.

Yaotl.

Cosette's face turned pale when she saw him and she didn't know what to say, but when Yaotl tried touching her face with his fingers, she backed away as if she he was poisonous.

"Don't even bother to apologize, Yaotl," Cosette said. "You will never have my forgiveness."

"I know, but I'm not here to earn your forgiveness," Yaotl said and held his right hand up like the other guys did. Cosette did the same thing and they walked in a circle around each other without making any physical contact. "I made a mistake. I was stupid and thought that I was doing the right… I made the wrong choice, Sacnite."

Cosette snorted and they raised their left hand instead now, walking in the opposite direction of what they did before, but still not making any physical contact with each other. She could still feel his essence even though they weren't touching and he was radiating of strong magic like she was, which confirmed her suspicion about him being a nagual too.

There were two kinds of naguals – those who were born a nagual and those who were turned into one usually by a shaman. The difference between the two kinds were that the born nagual was free to live his or hers life without having to answer to a shaman.

"You were stupid, yes, but you made your choice and I ruined everything we had. You broke my heart, Yao… I feel nothing for you anymore." Cosette said.

The last part was a lie, because she did still have feelings for him, but she didn't want to go back to him after how he practically threw their love in a casket and buried it. But when Yaotl suddenly pressed his palms against hers and they finally made physical contact, she felt a warm rush of adrenalin run through her veins and was on the verge of throwing herself at him. She intertwined her fingers with his, until Mrs. Lockwood suddenly told them not to make contact yet.

"I simply don't believe that, Sassy," Yaotl said as they walked slowly around each other again. "I know you still love me. I know you and remember how you used to look at me."

Cosette took a step away from him and stood still, while the others were still practicing. She hated him for knowing her so well and she hated Damon for not being there for her before she did something stupid like forgiving him or running away with him.

"Why have you been looking for me?" Cosette asked. "And don't say it's because you love me and want to be with me again, because that's never going to happen. I'm happy with someone else."

"I know. Damon Salvatore… Phillip told me that you were completely infatuated with him," Yaotl answered. "But I truly am here because I love you and I'm not leaving without you. We're made for each other, Sassy. I became a nagual to make up for the mistake I made a millennium ago."

"And you just expect me to forget what you did and take you back? You must either be incredible naïve or incredible stupid."

The near-touch part of the dance ended and this time they danced together the real way. The touch of Yaotl's hands on her body made her remember the first time she ever made love to him. The memory made her cheeks become flushed, but she tried to hide it.

"I want a new start with you, but not as Sacnite and Yaotl but as Cosette and Caleb"

Cosette raised an eyebrow. "Caleb?"

He nodded and smiled charmingly, making butterflies go crazy in her stomach and her cheeks blushing even more.

"I thought the meaning of the name would fit my powers. How did you get yours?"

Cosette opened her mouth to answer, but then she suddenly spotted Damon at the door and she quickly let go of _Caleb_ before he would notice that they were dancing together. But Damon had oil on his hands and was more focused on getting the last of it off as he walked up to Cosette. He noticed that Caleb was staring at him and looked confusedly at him.

"Get lost, will you?" he said irritably.

"Ah, Damon I presume… I did wonder when you would show up," Caleb said, walking up to him. The two young men stood in front of each other and waited for the other one to flinch or leave. Cosette shook her head at the sight of them acting like alphas. "I'm Yaotl or Caleb as I call myself nowadays. I'm Cosette's ex-fiancé nr. 1."

Damon was quiet at first, but then he turned his back to Caleb and offered his hand to Cosette with a smug smirk on his lips. She took his hand and he led her a few feet away from Caleb, so they could dance together without being disturbed. Although Cosette was now dancing with the one she really wanted to dance with, then she couldn't stop herself from watching Caleb as he placed a familiar plastic bag at her things along with a card he put inside the bag before he left.

"What did he want?" Damon asked without taking his eyes off hers.

Cosette blushed. "The same as Phillip," she answered hesitantly. "I so hate guys right now…"

Damon chuckled. "Hopefully, you don't hate me too?"

She giggled and shook her head. "You're an exception, but I do dislike you for being late. And why do you have oil on your hands?"

"I was on my way here when my car suddenly broke down, which is really strange since it worked perfectly yesterday and this morning. I think your douche bag of an ex-fiancé nr.1 sabotaged my car, so he could get to talk with you. I'm _so_ going to rip his head off later…"

Cosette stopped him abruptly. "Damon, you don't mess with a nagual. He's going to rip your head off before you can so much as blink. Let me take him down. I'm stronger than him."

Damon flashed a cocky smirk. "Love, I'm pretty sure I can take him down without your help. You're forgetting who you're talking to."

She snorted sarcastically. "Yeah, because you're the badass and smoking hot Damon Salvatore, right?"

He nodded and caught her by surprise by kissing her passionately right in front of everyone. She blushed rapidly and could feel her heart beating fast inside her chest. She wanted to feel all of him right now and here and was about to do it when Mrs. Lockwood suddenly cleared her throat loudly to make them stop and focus on the dancing part instead.

Damon moved away with a smirk on his lips and in one quick move he spun Cosette around and made her bent backwards. He pulled her back up and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

"Guess I was wrong about you. You've got moves!" Cosette said and laughed.

"Of course I do! And you know why?" Damon said, grinning widely. Cosette shook her head even though she knew why. "You would think it's because I'm an eternal stud, but it's actually more because my father forced me to go to all sorts of boring parties."

Cosette burst into laughter and couldn't focus on dancing anymore. She didn't expect Damon to answer that, but she was glad that he did, because he was able to take her mind off Yaotl or rather Caleb – as he called himself now – and made her remember why she didn't say yes to give him or Phillip another chance.

"Focus, Cosette! Focus!" Mrs. Lockwood said sternly.

"Sorry!" Cosette said and took a deep breath so she could focus properly. "Damon, I've been thinking a bit about… the search for Katherine and–"

"Forget about that lying bitch," he interrupted. "She's not worth finding."

"I know, but… I'm not the one looking for her. It's someone else and he's a close friend of mine. I can't just stop searching for her."

Damon groaned. "How many secrets can a girl like you possibly have? But fine, I'll help if you need it. I just think that we should focus on other things right now like…" He looked over at Stefan, who was dancing elegantly with Elena and nodded.

Cosette nodded understandingly and after the rehearsal ended, she went to find Stefan while Damon went back home and Elena had to grab a few things from her locker. She hadn't looked at the card Caleb left in the plastic bag with the dress she bought, because she wanted to wait until she got home or was alone. She found Stefan at his car and could hear that he was drinking something that smelled like human blood to her.

"So it is true then," she said, startling Stefan a bit and making him shut the trunk. He turned to her and tried looking innocent. "You're drinking human blood, aren't you?"

"What? No! I–"

"Don't lie to me, Stefan. You reek of human blood."

Stefan was about to object, but he knew that she was right and sighed. "Don't tell Elena anything. Please? I don't want her to worry about me. I can control the urge. Really."

Cosette looked suspiciously at him for a moment and took another step towards him. She could tell that he didn't have this under control and she knew that if she didn't stop him someone would get hurt. She didn't want Stefan to have that the death of an innocent girl on his conscious.

"Stefan, I know how hard it is to control the lust. You're _not_ under control, but if you would just let me tell Elena about this, then we can help you before you hurt someone."

Stefan's jaw tightened and he looked worriedly around for Elena, but he couldn't see her anywhere right now. Cosette feared that he was going to ignore her or turn her offer for help down, but he didn't walk away from her or told her to stay out of his business.

"I'll try sticking to the blood bags and call you if it gets worse," he said. "But you can't tell Elena about this. She has enough to worry about as it is. And I'm sure you don't want Damon to worry about why Yaotl is here either."

Cosette sighed and shook her head. Stefan had most likely heard every word from her conversation with Yaotl and could easily tell Damon just how badly her ex-fiancé wanted her back. She didn't like that Stefan had leverage on her, but she understood his reason for not wanting the girl he loved to know that he had a problem with his hunger for blood.

"I'm keeping an eye on you, Stefan. And if I see you as much as compel an innocent girl, then I _will_ take you down." Cosette said and walked back to the school.

**Thanks for reading and please review! ^_^**


	12. Enemies

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts! :D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 12:

Cosette sat alone at the bar in the Mystic Grill and enjoyed a glass of Bourbon, thinking about the usual: the future. Tomorrow afternoon she had to get ready for the Founder's Day Gala and was supposed to dance in front of dozens of people she didn't know with a vampire, who lived at the time the dance was invented. She wasn't particularly excited about the contest, but she couldn't wait to get her hands on John Gilbert's ring, because she had a feeling that he was going to cause them many problems if she didn't soon take him down.

"_Aren't you too young to buy alcohol?_" a familiar voice said, tempting Cosette to snort.

"That depends on what you see as young," Cosette said without turning her head to John. He ordered a glass of scotch and looked at her for a moment. "In some countries I'm actually allowed to buy alcohol in this age."

"Some countries? Don't you mean all? I mean, you _are_ over 1000 years old."

_That_ made Cosette react and she looked wonderingly at him. He smiled weakly and mouthed "Isobel", which made her nod understandingly and relax a bit.

"How do you know her?" she asked curiously.

"Well… let's just say that we go way back," John said and watched Cosette as she took another swig of her drink. He was looking for something on her and Cosette guessed that it was the Lapis Lazuli stone, which meant that Isobel hadn't told him the whole truth about her. "How do you know her?"

"We go way back..." Cosette smiled innocently and took another swig. "I hear that you're looking for some sort of device, yes?"

"Working as a silly messenger for the Salvatores, are we? Aren't they a little too young for your taste?"

"Answer my question and I might answer yours."

John smiled and took a swig of his drink before he answered her question. "I am looking for it and I've heard that it can be found here. But why don't we make a much better deal than the one you must have made with the Salvatores. I can offer you very valuable information."

"I don't think so."

He narrowed his eyes at her and leaned closer to her. Cosette could smell the scent of vervain coming from his breath, but vervain wouldn't protect him from her.

"Let me make things clear, Cosette. I just happen to be a part of the Council and if say I told them that you are a vampire then they might want to have a chat with you."

Cosette had to laugh now. "You're threatening me? Really? John, you seem like a very smart man, but I'm afraid Isobel hasn't been completely honest with you. I'm not a vampire, so your silly vervain won't work on me and neither will wood. Unless you find out what I am, then you're screwed. Especially, since I'm not the only one of my kind that's in this town or in this restaurant right now."

John's face turned pale whether he wanted to show it or not and it amused Cosette immensely. She took the last swig of her drink and left the Grill without looking back. She knew that Caleb had been in the restaurant too and that was why she had allowed herself to be that cocky, but if John found out what her strength and weaknesses were, then she would be the one who was screwed. She especially had to be careful now that she had lost the advantage and he no longer trusted her.

"_You've become cockier… I like it,_" Cosette heard another familiar voice say. She recognized the voice immediately, but she didn't feel uneasy being around him this time. She turned around and looked him straight into his eyes. He took his last drag of his cigarette before he flicked it on the ground and put it out with his foot. He exhaled the smoke as he walked up to her and there was something about it that made Cosette softening up to him. "Is it the years of being alone that has changed you?"

"Among others…" Cosette said. "What do you want?"

"_You_… among others." Caleb smirked, making Cosette's heart melt a bit. "I noticed that you have a few problems with a certain someone… You want me to take him down?"

"No. I can do that myself."

Caleb chuckled. "Of course you can."

Cosette rolled her eyes and was about to walk away, but Caleb grabbed her arm, making her instinctively grab him by his neck and slam him hard into the wall in the alley. She flashed her werewolf fangs and yellow eyes, but he remained calm.

"This reminds me of the time you caught me sneaking around your home in the middle of the night," he said teasingly. "It was the night we first kissed. You–"

Cosette tightened her grip around his neck, so he couldn't speak. He grabbed her wrist and used all his force to remove it and with one quick move she was suddenly the one to be pinned against the wall and Caleb was standing so close that she could feel his heart beating hard against her chest.

"You can give me all the fancy things in the world and kill all my enemies, but I will _never_ love you the same way I did before. Nothing can change that. You had you chance with me and you're not getting a new one." Cosette said before he could open his mouth.

"I know that, but I also know that you're just scared. You do love me and you want things to be like before, but you're afraid that I will break your heart again. I won't. I gave up my soul to become a nagual, searched the whole world for 1000 years, and left my family behind. If that doesn't say that I love you and won't hurt you again, then maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. Maybe all what we had together don't matter anymore." Caleb said and walked away.

Cosette didn't stop him, but she didn't leave the alley either. She just stood there and watched him walk away and when she couldn't see him anymore, she sighed heavily and walked back home. Parts of her knew that Caleb was right and wished that he had been so in love with her in the past, but she still loved Damon and wasn't ready to trust Caleb yet.

When she returned to the Salvatore Boarding House and walked in to the room where Damon was, she was pleasantly surprised to see him in a black suit. He was trying it on for the gala tomorrow and didn't seem too happy about having to look this fancy.

"There is a change in our plans," Cosette said and wrapped her arms around him from behind. Damon turned around and brushed a stray of loose hair behind her ear. "John walked up to me today. He knows that I'm a supernatural being, but he thought that I was just a very old vampire. I didn't tell him what I really am, but… now we have to find another way to get close to him."

Damon groaned. "In that case I say we take him down when he least suspects it. But does this mean that we're going to drop out of the competition?" he asked.

Cosette shook her head, making him groan again. "I still need to convince the rest of the Council that I'm an ordinary girl and then when the competition is done, we take him down. Sounds good?"

"Well, if we have a little fun tonight, then yes."

Cosette giggled and listened carefully to make sure that they were alone in the house. They were, so she took his hand and walked with him to his bedroom. They quickly reached Damon's bed and Cosette let Damon undress her as he kissed her exposed skin. She wrapped her arms around his neck and moaned softly of the touch of his lips on her skin. She couldn't wait anymore and wanted him to make her forget about her meeting with Caleb.

"Are you nervous?" Cosette asked teasingly.

Damon snorted. "Of course not! I'm going to rock your world…" he answered and chuckled.

Cosette giggled and pulled him in for another passionate kiss. She rolled him under her and moved her kisses down his bare chest, until she reached the hem of his pants. She unbuttoned it and yanked his pants off, and then returned her lips to his. He unclasped her bra while she was distracted and enjoyed the sight of her bare body before they crawled under the warm covers and continued.

Every time Damon touched Cosette's body, she felt a jolt of excitement run through her body and made her shiver under his muscular body. She closed her eyes and let out another moan when she felt him inside her. The burning passion began growing inside her and the more he gently caressed her skin. He let his fangs extend and sunk them into the side of her neck, making her moan louder than before and sink her nails into his back.

"Damon… I… I love you…" Cosette whispered before she could stop herself.

She hoped that Damon hadn't heard her, because to admit that she had already fallen that hard in love with him was not something she wanted to do. But Damon stopped abruptly and looked deep into her eyes for a moment and there was something about the way he looked at her that made her calm down a bit.

"I–"

"_Cosette! Damon!_" Elena yelled from the living room.

Cosette sighed, while Damon let out an annoyed groan. He was about to get off her, but she held her arms tightly around him and forced him to stay for a little longer.

"Forget what I said before," she said and tried stepping out of the bed, but this time Damon held on to her and said: "I love you too, Cos."

Cosette smiled and was tempted to continue their evening of fun, but they heard Elena call for them again, so they reluctantly dressed and went downstairs to her. When Elena noticed the arm Damon had around Cosette's waist, her eyebrow raised and Damon quickly moved his hand away again.

"Are you two…?" she asked curiously.

"Um… you could say that," Cosette said and giggled. Damon rolled his eyes and went in to the living room to get himself a drink that he clearly needed very badly. "That explains why he kissed me, doesn't it?"

Elena nodded and chuckled. "But at least he's not compelling innocent girls and toying with their mind…"

Cosette nodded in agreement and walked with Elena to the kitchen. They poured up a cup of coffee for both of them and sat at the table.

"Do you know why Stefan has been acting so… strange lately?" Elena asked worriedly.

Cosette shrugged and shook her head even though that was a lie too. But she promised Stefan to keep quiet about his little problem and she was going to keep that promise.

"Don't worry about him. We all have our days where we act strange. I do it all the time!" Cosette joked, hoping that Elena wouldn't ask any more questions about Stefan's new behavior.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. Oh, and I almost forgot something. That guy you danced with before Damon came… who is he?"

Cosette sighed. She knew that she couldn't keep this secret to herself forever, so she began telling Elena the story about her and Yaotl's relationship, but left the part out about him still loving her.

No one needed to know that...

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	13. Dark Era

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts! :D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 13:

Damon slowly zipped the back of Cosette's dark blue gala dress and kissed her gently along the side of her exposed neck, clearly wanting to do the complete opposite of what he was doing now. She wanted the same thing so badly, but there were only a couple of minutes left before they had to walk down the stairs gracefully and dance in front of all the important people from town.

"I can't wait to remove this dress again," Damon said teasingly, turning her around to face him. Cosette chuckled and wrapped her arms around him. He buried his fingers in her long, curly blond hair and was about to kiss her when there was suddenly a knock on the door. Damon groaned softly, but not loud enough for Mrs. Lockwood to hear it. "I'll see you later, love."

Cosette nodded and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek before he left with Mrs. Lockwood and the other escorts to get ready for the contestants beautiful entrance. She went in to the room where Elena was busying getting ready and could tell by how worried she looked that Damon had told her the truth about why Stefan behaved so strangely. She didn't want to be caught up in it, because she had promised Stefan not to tell Elena the truth, but Damon had figured it out by himself and couldn't keep it from Elena anymore.

"Are you alright?" Cosette asked worriedly.

Elena nodded, but her facial expression showed otherwise. Cosette walked up to her and helped her zip the back of her dress.

"You don't have to worry about him," she said calmly. "If Stefan tries to hurt anyone then I'll stop him. But we have to stop this behavior of his before anything happens."

"I know, but I just can't understand how he could keep this a secret. I mean, we're supposed to trust each other."

That one hit a sore spot in Cosette. Trust. Something she lacked a bit of with Damon as well as with Caleb and Phillip. She shrugged the sense of guilt off and suddenly heard the sound of someone breaking a mirror downstairs. She chose to go down and check out what had happened and spotted Stefan leaving with another one of the contestants, who had clearly been compelled to stay calm.

"Oh no…" she muttered and quickly followed him as quietly as she could in her high heels. She knew that she had to hurry because the dance was about to start soon and they were both going to miss it if they didn't have a talk about his blood lust now. "Stefan, no!"

Stefan turned and the girl he stood with looked confusedly at her, but she still remained calm because she was under his compulsion. Cosette pushed Stefan away from her and used her powers to make the girl leave as fast as she could and then turned her attention back on Stefan.

"What the hell is the matter with you? You told me that you would call me if the blood lust became too much for you!" she hissed angrily.

"I know and I'm sorry, but-but I… I can't… I need…" Stefan was freaking out. He walked back and forth and muttered something about blood that Cosette couldn't make out. She sighed and grabbed his arm, but he quickly yanked it back and pushed her away from him. "Leave me alone, Cosette! I need to do this and you're _not_ stopping me!"

He tried walking past her, but Cosette stopped him and pushed him hard against a tree. He growled and flashed his fangs at her, hitting her so hard across her face that she fell down. But Cosette couldn't let him go, so she jumped on him and they tumbled towards the woods, fighting each other like two wild beasts. Cosette was surprised by how strong and wild Stefan's dark side was, but she didn't give up and was determined to help him whether he liked it or not.

When Cosette finally managed to pin Stefan successfully to the ground the dance had already begun and she knew that there was no way in hell that they could get there in time to join the others. But it didn't matter anyway if them being away meant that no one would get hurt.

"Stefan, listen to me! I know it's hard to control the hunger – trust me I know – but you _can't_ let it take over. You just can't! If you do that then you will kill someone and you will regret doing it. I still regret killing all those people I killed when I lost control of myself after Yaotl broke my heart. I was hurt and I let my rage get the better of me. I'm not going to let you do the same thing. Do you understand?" Cosette said firmly.

Stefan growled at her in response and with one swift move he was suddenly on top of her and his gaze was locked on her exposed neck. He sunk his fangs into her neck before she could stop him and held her pinned to the ground. She quickly transformed to her leopard form and knocked him into a tree so hard that he lost his breath for a moment. She growled louder and could hear that someone was coming closer to them, so she quickly transformed to her dog form and fled the place, while Stefan remained and dealt with whoever came.

It wasn't so much because Cosette didn't want to be seen, but she was bleeding a lot from her neck and needed blood, so when she came back to the boarding house she changed back to her human form and grabbed a blood bag, draining it quickly it one large swig. She then grabbed another one and drank the content of this one too, helping her wound to heal faster.

"_You look like you could need a hand_…"

Cosette didn't need to turn around to know who it was. She grabbed an old and worn blanket and wrapped it around her bare body before turning around to face Caleb. He was wearing a black suit, which meant that he had been at the gala too.

"What do you want? I don't have time to argue with you!" Cosette snarled.

"I'm here to warn you, Cosette. I'm hearing things about Klaus looking for you and if you continue to stay here he will find you. Damon can't protect you from him but I can." Caleb said.

Cosette snorted. "So can I! I don't need your help, Caleb. You're only wasting mine and your own time!"

Caleb shook his head and walked up to her. The touch of his fingers gently touching the side of her neck made her heart beat faster and she automatically thought about the day he proposed to her. She closed her eyes for a moment and half-expected to feel his lips press against hers, but when she opened her eyes he was no longer there. Only the card he gave her, but that she tossed out was left. Cosette picked it up from the floor and finally read what it said.

_You will always be my perfect fit._

That sentence hit another sore spot inside her and she wondered how long she could go on with hiding from Damon that she was still in love with the man who betrayed her. She had always been a sucker when it came to trusting men and falling too quickly in love, but when she was in love she felt like she had a reason to live for another 1000 years and was truly happy.

"Cosette?"

This time it wasn't Caleb but Damon and he was carrying a knocked out Stefan towards one of the cellars. He placed Stefan inside a cellar and locked the door before returning to hear. She blushed because she hadn't even heard them coming, but then again, she had been busying thinking about Caleb and the card that was still in her hand. She quickly hid it behind her back before Damon saw it and hoped that he hadn't noticed Caleb leave the boarding house.

"We found your blood near the woods… Are you okay?" Damon asked worriedly.

Cosette nodded. "I tried stopping Stefan, but he was so… not himself. I hope he'll be okay." she answered.

"Me too. And thanks. I owe you one."

Cosette smiled. "Well in that case I think we should continue what we started yesterday. Don't you agree?"

Damon didn't hesitate to pick her up in his arms and swiftly carried her upstairs to his bedroom. She removed the blanket from her naked body and crawled up on Damon after pushing him down onto the bed. He quickly removed his jacket, then his shirt, and at last the matching black pants.

Cosette needed to think of something else, so she pushed away all her worries and just focused solely on Damon right now. She wanted him to tell her that he loved her too again, but a part of her was afraid that she wouldn't mean it when she replied because she did still have feelings for her ex. No, there was no time to think about Caleb right now. She pushed that thought away too and finally said those three words that used to mean so much to her in the past.

"I love you…" she moaned more than said.

A smile formed on Damon's lips and he replied with a kiss so passionate that it made Cosette's brain stop working. She was unable to think, breathe, and speak properly and her body was starting to tremble with joy under Damon's warm body. She let her fingers glide down his spine and could hear the sound of his breathing become heavier.

They moved in perfect harmony against each other and it felt like the world around them began disappearing before their eyes. Cosette couldn't remember when the last time she felt this way was and she tried hard to suppress the tears that were brimming in her eyes. It annoyed her that she still got this emotional about love, but that was just how she was. She was still partly human.

"Was that good enough for you?" Damon asked, kissing her gently down her warm and sweaty body.

Cosette ran her fingers through her damp hair and let out a tired chuckle. "Yeah… you certainly impressed me for a baby vamp." she answered teasingly.

Damon smirked smugly and moved his lips back up to hers for a brief moment. "Would you say that I rocked your world?"

Now Cosette had to laugh, but he actually did rock her world and made her feel like she was closer to him now more than ever.

"I wouldn't say you rocked my world, but…"

Damon frowned, making Cosette laugh again. "That's so not funny, you crazy wolf!"

She stuck her tongue out at him and tugged her body closer to him to enjoy this moment for a little while longer.

"I don't want to be a buzz kill or anything, but… did Caleb contact you today? I saw him at the gala and… well, did he annoy you again?"

Cosette wanted to move away, but Damon's grip around her tightened a bit. He was jealous and he couldn't hide it no matter how much he tried.

"He did, yes… But nothing happened, I swear. He just… warned me about someone else who is looking for me."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Another crazy ex?"

She shook her head hesitantly. "Well, kindda. But it wasn't a serious relationship. He… he was just there for me during my… _dark_ era."

"Dark era? When was that?"

Cosette sighed heavily, because she really didn't want to talk about that time. Like Stefan she was ashamed of her behavior and wished that it never had happened.

"I'll tell you about it some other time, okay?"

Damon nodded understandingly and let her rest in peace.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	14. The Invention

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts! :D**

**Since I currently have a cold and have been at home all day, I thought that I would write an extra long chap with a little lime scene )**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 14:

The feeling of the warm water pouring down on her bare body soothed Cosette's mind and washed away all her worries, thoughts, and everlasting hunger for blood. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the silence in Damon's bathroom, while Damon himself was watching the news in his bedroom. The last six days they'd spent together had been very busy, but now it seemed like they could finally relax. Stefan was back to his normal self and drinking animal blood, but it had been a tough couple of days and Cosette had spent a lot of time trying to teach Stefan how to control his thirst for blood.

However, Cosette suddenly felt Damon wrap his arms around her naked form from behind and move his hands up to her bosom. She could feel that he was naked as well and he wasn't just naked, but also starting to get in the mood. She smiled and looked over her shoulder, immediately feeling his lips press softly against hers.

"Enjoying yourself?" she couldn't stop herself from asking.

Damon chuckled. "Always…" he said teasingly. "Oh, look at that! Another tattoo! How many do you have?"

Cosette giggled and looked at the tattoo Damon's gaze was locked on. It was the one of her name – the one her father made for her on her 16th birthday.

"Five or six, I think. The one you're looking at is one of my true name in Nahuatl."

Damon raised an eyebrow, looking very intrigued now. "And what is your true name?"

Cosette turned around and let his hands wander down to her butt. He gave her butt a squeeze and pulled her very close to him, but she didn't mind it.

"Sacnite. It means white flower."

He smiled and pressed his lips against hers, kissing her passionately for a moment, until they suddenly heard Damon's phone ring. Cosette groaned and wanted him to ignore it, but he promised that he would be quickly back and answered his phone.

While she waited she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body, walking out to find her own phone and check if anyone had texted her. She quickly discovered that _someone_ had texted her and that someone wasn't anyone she knew. She opened the text anyway and her eyes widened when she read what it said.

_I need to meet you at the Grill at 12:00. _

_Don't be late and come alone, Necahual._

It could only be Isobel. No one else called her by the epithet she gained after fleeing her hometown.

"Stefan just called. He says he has something important to ask me about. Are you coming?" Damon asked, taking Cosette's attention away from her phone.

"Um, no, I think I'll go visit Anna and try cheering her up. She did lose her mother after all…" Cosette lied.

She didn't want to lie to Damon, but she wanted to know what Isobel was doing in town and Isobel did request for only her to show up.

"Oh, well suit yourself. And feel free to talk about my awesome skills in bed while you're there…" Damon flashed his most mischievous smile, making Cosette roll her eyes of him and shake her head.

"Call me if you need me. And that covers _all_ of your needs…." Cosette winked flirtatiously at him and in a flash she was suddenly pinned against the wall.

The towel around her body dropped to the floor, so she jumped up on him and locked her legs around his waist. There was still some time to spare before they had to go and with all that was going on lately she wanted a little reminder of why she was fighting to stay with Damon.

"All of my needs?" Damon asked, leaning in to kiss her along the side of her neck.

Cosette nodded and watched as the towel around Damon's waist dropped to the floor too. A smile formed on her lips and he carried her to his bed, kissing every inch of her exposed body. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and moaned softly by the touch of his lips on her skin. She let out another moan when she felt him inside her and his lips moved back up to hers. She opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of him so close to her. She nibbled to his bottom lip and without any warning she suddenly rolled him under her and let her fingers trail down his defined abs.

Time seemed to pass quickly, because before Cosette and Damon had reached the purpose of why they were making love, she suddenly noticed that it was almost 12:00 and cursed aloud. Damon quickly figured out why she was cursing and just continued.

"I'm sure Anna can wait…" he murmured teasingly, the sound of her voice sending warm shivers through her body. "Now where were we?"

Cosette giggled and continued making love to him even though she was going to be late. She hoped that Isobel wouldn't mind it and even if she did then she wouldn't care. This was her life and no one decided what she could and couldn't do with her boyfriend.

However, Cosette eventually left Damon's bed and went to the Mystic Grill where Isobel was waiting at the parking lot. She signed for Cosette to follow her and took her to a beautiful house in town where two compelled humans – a very attractive woman in sexy lingerie and a very attractive man with nice abs from Isobel's former home – were dancing closely together. Cosette couldn't stop herself from smirking of Isobel's choice of entertainment.

"I see that you're getting yourself comfortable in Mystic Falls…" she said, taking a seat on the couch next to the two dancing humans. "Je veux danser…"

"You can join them if you want to," Isobel said, overhearing Cosette's comment about wanting to dance too. "The more the merrier, right?"

Cosette chuckled. "I think I'll pass for now and I have already wasted your time enough as it is, but if you must blame anyone then blame Damon Salvatore."

Isobel raised an eyebrow. "Damon Salvatore? Is he causing you any trouble?"

She shook her head and Isobel realized what Cosette meant. She smirked and sat down next to her with a bottle of red wine mixed with human blood and two wine glasses. Isobel poured wine up in the two glasses and handed one of them to Cosette.

"À votre sante!" she said, gently touching Cosette's glass with hers.

"À la votre," Cosette replied and took a sip of her glass. It felt like ages since she had last tasted blood mixed with wine and she truly missed it as much as she missed hunting a living human down to drink his or hers blood instead of drinking blood from a blood bag. "Why did you request my presence, Isobel?"

"I'm looking for Johnathan Gilbert's invention… I've heard that your old friend Pearl used to have it before she died. Is that correct?"

Cosette frowned, but nodded. "What could you possible want the invention for? You do know that Johnathan Gilbert was not so keen of vampires, right?"

Isobel nodded. "I know what it's capable of, but I have other purposes with it. I need you to get it for me if you know who has it."

She snorted now, because she knew that there was no way in hell that Damon would give her the invention, so she could give it to Isobel – Elena's supposedly dead mother, who was now a vampire and who had compelled a man to kill himself after telling her daughter to stop looking for her.

"I'm going to have to stay neutral on this," she said. "I'm sorry, but I have enough to worry about as it is. Yaotl is back, Klaus is looking for me, and only God knows where Katherine is."

Isobel sighed, but then she suddenly turned her gaze towards the door where no other than John Gilbert stood, watching the two humans dance with aversion written all over his face. Cosette wasn't worried about seeing John here and just leaned back in her seat.

"Ah, I should have known," she said and giggled. "You're Elena's father, aren't you? It explains why a vampire hunter like you would be talking with a vampire like Isobel."

John glared venomously at her, but she ignored him and suddenly felt her phone vibrate. Damon had sent her a text, asking her to meet him outside the Grill immediately. She wondered what was going on, until she overheard Isobel and John talking about Isobel wanting to meet Elena in person soon.

"I have to go!" she said and left before they could stop her.

She hurried to the Mystic Grill and met up with Damon and Alaric, who were talking with Elena and Stefan about Isobel. She became worried of whether or not they knew that she knew where Isobel was, but she soon found out that they were just talking about the meeting Isobel had arranged with Elena through her ex-husband Alaric.

"Cosette!" Damon exclaimed when he spotted her. "Thank you for coming. I need you and Stefan to go inside the Grill with Elena and keep an eye on her in case her mother, Isobel, tries anything."

Cosette shrugged. "I… don't think that's such a good idea," she said hesitantly, making all of them look confusedly at her. "I mean, I… I've met Isobel before. She knows how I look and will recognize me. It's better if I just stay out here."

Damon frowned, but he didn't ask and just watched as Stefan and Elena went inside alone. But just because Damon didn't ask about when she had met Isobel, then it didn't mean that Alaric wouldn't.

"So you know Isobel? In person?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged again. "Well… kindda. She has… researched about me and tracked me down, but it was after she became a vampire. "

"Oh… I've heard that vampires can give up their humanity. Does that apply to shape shifters?"

Cosette noticed that Damon seemed interested about knowing that too, because he suddenly turned his gaze towards her with a worried look in his face. She sighed heavily and leaned against a statue.

"In the beginning you can, but as you get older it gets harder to push your human side away. The same thing applies to vampires. You can't just turn off your emotions forever. They'll always be there."

Damon didn't say anything, but just walked absently around in the park where they were waiting. She could tell that he had tried turning off his emotions before and failed after some time just like she did. She had realized that no matter how many innocent people she killed, then she was never going to get rid of the pain or the memories of what caused the pain.

"_Phillip_," Damon suddenly growled. Cosette turned around and was shocked to see Phillip back in town. She hadn't seen him since she left him in New York after giving him what he wanted all along. "You and _Caleb_ really need to understand that Cosette doesn't want anything to do with you."

Phillip smirked, but quickly moved his gaze to Cosette, who couldn't make herself move or even speak. She just stood there and stared incredulously at him.

"So this is your choice? You're choosing an arrogant, little prick over me? Do you even know how stupid that sounds?" Phillip asked angrily.

"This has nothing to do with age, Phillip," she growled. "I left you because you only think with your dick! How many times do I have to tell you that before you understand it?"

Phillip snorted and grabbed her arm hard, which made Damon and Alaric react immediately. Damon tried yanking Phillip away, but was knocked to the ground with one simple punch, while Alaric was pushed hard into a tree. Cosette became furious of his behavior and gave him an aneurism that forced him down on his knees in front of her.

"I'm done with you, Phillip! You hear me? I'm done! Now fuck off or I _will_ kill you!" she snarled.

She stopped causing him pain and he reluctantly left, but Cosette knew that she was going to see him soon. She knew him all too well and like Caleb he was a very patient man.

"And who was that again?" Alaric asked, rubbing his sore back.

"One of my many crazy exes…" Cosette answered and groaned. "Why can't they just leave me alone? It's not like there isn't other girls in the world they can be with."

"Just kill them then," Damon said more than suggested. "No one is going to miss them anyway."

"Damon, it's not that simple. I can't just–"

"Yes you can! Why do you keep letting them bother you when you don't love them? Or is it because you still have feelings for them?"

It sounded like Damon was accusing her and felt that way too, but he was right. She did have feelings for Caleb and couldn't deny that. But she also knew that Damon probably still thought about Katherine and he was reminded of her whenever he saw Elena. Perhaps the tension between him and Elena meant something more than she thought?

"You're in no position to tell me what to do, Damon," she said. "And if you really love me, then you won't make me kill someone I used to love."

"If you really love me then you would only let me be in your life." Damon said.

Cosette glared at him and for a moment none of them said anything. She was pissed off about how he made it sound like she hadn't tried to remove Caleb and Phillip from her life. It felt like he didn't trust her and that he expected her to forget everything she'd ever felt for them in the past. She couldn't forget all the memories and just shut out the feelings. If she did that she would become a careless monster again like she was a long time ago and she didn't want to go back there.

But when none of them wanted to apologize, Cosette chose to leave and never looked back once. She transformed to her wolf form and went to the woods where she spotted another dark brown wolf…

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	15. Fool Me Once

**A/N: Hii, thanks for the reviews! :D**

**Wauw, I can't believe that we're really about halfway now o_O Anyway, I can tell you that things are going to go crazy after this chapter and it won't be long before Miss Katherine Pierce makes her entrance and so will Klaus and Elijah (of course) ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 15:

_Caleb walked up to Cosette with calm steps and she immediately caught the scent of fresh deer blood from his breath. She flashed her sharp teeth warningly at him, but he didn't care. He walked up to her anyway and nuzzled her face before transforming to his human form. She stayed in her wolf form and just stared at his scarred body, thinking back to the first time he exposed all of him to her and she to him._

"_You're hurt," he stated more than asked, but he was right. She was hurt and it was written all over her face. She looked shyly away, but he placed his hands on her head and made her look into his eyes. She transformed back to her human form and consciously covered her naked body with her hands. "Was it Phillipe? I saw him talk with you and…"_

_Cosette shook her head and felt tears trickle down her cheeks. She didn't expect Damon's words to hurt her that much, but he had and that was because she loved him so much. It was always the ones that loved you the most that also hut you the most._

"_Cosette, let go of him. You belong with me. He's more busying being in love with his brother's girl and thinking about Katherine Pierce. He doesn't love you the same way I do. I would do everything for you without hesitating."_

"_But it's because of you and Phillip that all this is happening! Why can't you let go of me? I don't trust you and you've hurt me before in the past." Cosette said._

_Caleb cupped her face in his hands and kissed her briefly on her forehead. "Please give me a chance. Just one chance. I promise I won't screw it up. I love you, Cosette. I always have. Just tell me if you're ready to give me another chance and if not… then I won't bother you again. Nor will Phillip. I will make sure of that... So what do you say? Will you give me another chance?"_

"Fool me once, shame on you," Cosette said quietly to herself, shaking away the memory of her meeting with Caleb in the woods. She stared absently at the Mystic Falls parade from the banister she was sitting on a few feet away from the massive crowd of cheering people. "Fool me twice…"

"Shame on me," someone finished. Cosette turned her gaze to the person who stood next to her with his arms folded. Caleb leaned against the banister with his hands in his pockets and looked at her with a smile on his lips. "I know that I promised to leave, but… I can't go without getting at least one goodbye kiss from you."

"A goodbye kiss?" Cosette snorted.

Caleb walked up in front of her and gave her a gentle kiss on the back of her hand. The touch of his lips on her skin made her heart beat faster and left her wanting for more. Cosette jumped down from the banister to walk away, but he pushed her against the banister and slipped his arms tightly around her waist. Her heart was pounding furiously inside her chest now and she found it very hard to resist him. He leaned in to kiss her, but Damon suddenly appeared and poked him on the back just as Caleb was an inch away from her lips.

"Damon? I didn't expect to see you here," Caleb said calmly and turned around. "I was just saying goodbye to–"

"Yeah, I don't really care what you were doing. When I tell you to get lost, then you better do it, you worthless piece of shit!" Damon snarled.

Cosette was surprised to see Damon like this after how he'd practically ignored her day yesterday, but there was a part of her that was happy about it. She wanted him to fight for her and remind her of why she chose him over Caleb and Phillip.

"Are you threatening me, Salvatore?" Caleb asked, smirking smugly.

Damon glared venomously at him and took a step closer to him. "In a matter of fact, yes I am. I'll kick your ass if I have to if that means that you won't keep bothering my girlfriend again." he answered.

Caleb chuckled mockingly. "I was going to, but now I think I'll stay. There is no way in hell that I'm going to let Cosette be with a dick like you!"

Cosette became anxious now, because as much as she liked that Damon stood up to Caleb then she didn't want them to get into a fight, because she knew that Damon was going to lose. Caleb was faster, stronger, and older than him and had years of experience. He'd had to be extremely lucky to be able to take him down and especially in front of all those people.

"I know I'm a dick, but you know what's the difference between you and I? I _didn't_ try to sacrifice my own girlfriend just to keep my rep!" Damon said, hitting a sore spot that he shouldn't have hit.

Caleb snapped and jumped on Damon, planting a fist in his face over and over again and tumbling around on the grass in his attempt to kill Damon with his bare hands. Damon fought back bravely and used all his strength, but of course Caleb was still stronger than him. Cosette tried stopping their fight, but it was nearly impossible because as soon as she detached them from each other they would just push her away and continue the fight.

"Stop it!" she yelled, but no one was listening.

Caleb had Damon's shirt in an iron grip and was punching him in his face over and over as hard as he could. Luckily, Stefan showed up – still in his 19th century suit – and helped Cosette pulling Caleb off Damon. This time Cosette used this opportunity to push him farther away from Damon and held him pinned to a tree. She opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind and hit him as hard as she could; knocking him down on the ground.

"Thank you, Yaotl! I officially feel _nothing_ for you now! Leave before I rip your head off!" Cosette snarled, flashing her wolf teeth and yellow at him.

Caleb glanced at the bleeding Damon, who was being helped up by Stefan, and then back at Cosette's angry eyes. He groaned, but gave up and left for now. Cosette hurried back to Damon and helped him back to the boarding house, while Stefan went back to Elena to protect her in case Caleb decided to take his rage out on someone else. She got him home safely, but he had bruises all over his body, was bleeding, and could barely move without being in pain.

"Get me a blood bag!" he groaned.

Cosette did as told and quickly fetched him three blood bags. He emptied the content of the first one in a matter of seconds and the blood made his healing process go quicker.

"What the hell were you thinking, Damon? You don't mess with shape shifters and definitely not–"

"Could you please shut up? Pretty please? I feel like I have a nasty hangover just 5000 times worse!" Damon moaned.

Cosette sighed weakly and sat down next to him on the couch. She leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek as a 'thank you' for showing had so strong feelings about her. He could easily have taken her and walked away or even ignored the kiss and let it happen, but he didn't. He fought against a shape shifter, who was about 800 years older than him and that meant more to her that he could possible know.

"You weren't kidding when you said he was strong…" Damon muttered.

"Of course not, but…" Cosette sighed, remembering how they had been at each other yesterday.

Damon noticed the sadness in her eyes and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry about what I said. I… I'm confused. One minute I'm crazy about you and in the other… in the other I'm comparing you with Katherine and I… don't want to do that. Katherine was… _is_ a manipulative bitch and I thought that she loved me like when you thought that Caleb loved you before he betrayed you."

Cosette knew what Damon meant and how he felt. It wasn't fun to be tricked by your own fiancé and then having to fight for your life, because people thought that you were a demon sent to snare them. Cosette gently embraced Damon and pressed her lips against his, and even though he was still sore, then he still wrapped his arms around her and kissed her with such passion that made her body tremble under him.

"If you weren't that sore, then I could try making you forget about Katherine…" Cosette said teasingly.

Damon picked her up in his arms and tried running with his vampire speed, but he was too sore to move and ended up on the couch again.

"Damn it!" he groaned.

"Aww! Poor you!"

"Yeah, poor me!" Damon chuckled. "But you _could_… massage me?"

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"

Cosette shook her head of him and giggled, but made him lay down on his stomach on the couch and took off his shirt. She quickly fetched three different kinds of massage oil, so he had something to choose from and after choosing one of them she crawled up on his butt and started out massaging his back the way she remembered how her mother used to do whenever her father came home from a hard day of work in the town.

"Wauw… Now _this_ is the benefits of dating a 1000 years old shape shifter!" Damon said cheerfully.

Cosette giggled again and began rubbing the lower parts of his body, until she noticed something peculiar. Just a few inches from his kidneys, was an old gunshot wound that couldn't have been from his life as a vampire and that was when Cosette realized that she didn't know that much about Damon's past _before_ he met Katherine and became a vampire.

"How did you get the wound on your lower back?" she asked curiously.

Damon looked over his shoulder for a moment, but didn't say anything at first. He moved his gaze back to the armrest and sighed weakly.

"During the Civil War," he said softly. "I was shot by a guy, who apparently wasn't dead yet. But I was treated and sent home a couple of weeks after that."

"The Civil War? God, I can't even remember how many wars I've watched go on and even fought in during the last 1000 years. I mostly remember… the Inca Civil War in 1529. It was a horrendous war and it all began because of something as stupid as smallpox." Cosette said.

Damon snorted. "Wars always start with something stupid, but I don't want to talk about that right now. Tell me something about your childhood. Where did you grow up?"

Cosette became quiet, so Damon looked over his shoulder again with a worried look on his face. "I promise I'll tell you something about mine then…" he added.

"Okay… I was born in Monte Albán in 932, as you already know, and… and I lived alone with my father and mother in the forest near the town," Cosette told him. "We moved out there because of me. At first people were confused of why I was so pale compared to them, but my father convinced them that it was just an illness, until a couple of boys annoyed me so much that I accidentally transformed into a wolf for the first time and then in front of them. They became frightened and rumors quickly spread about me. In the end they thought that I was a demon, so we moved and after about 10 years of living there I met… well, you know who."

"That must have sucked… the part about you having to move to the forest, I mean. Did you ever miss living in the town? You must have had friends and other family there…"

"At first I did, but I grew to love the forest and at least I could be myself there. I used to go hunting with my dad, swam in the lake all day, and my mom would braid my hair with all kinds of beautiful flowers… But they were killed because they were hiding me and I will always have their blood on my hands no matter how happy I was with them in those 18 years."

Cosette stepped off him and he turned around, looking worriedly at her. She could feel tears trickling down her cheeks, but she tried hiding it and just left the room without saying a word. She never liked talking about her past, because when she did she began remembering everything – good and bad.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	16. Katherine

**A/N: Hiii, thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts! ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 16:

The Founder's Day party had just begun when Damon and Cosette searched for John. They knew that they had to find the device before it was activated and exposed every vampire in town. Although, it would be useful for them to let the Founder's Council take down all the other vampires that got out of the tomb, then the device was going to expose them as well.

Cosette wasn't sure of whether or not the device would work on her too or just vampires, but even if it did then she knew that John was going to die tonight. She was stronger and older than all the other vampires and might be able to destroy the device that Bonnie had tricked them into believing didn't work anymore.

"Wait," Cosette said, stopping Damon before they entered the shop John was inside. "I'll transform and distract him. You get the device."

Damon nodded understandingly and watched as Cosette transformed to her wolf form. She burst inside the shop and growled viciously at John, who immediately backed away from the device. She walked closer to him, flashing her sharp teeth at him and growling louder, but when Damon entered the shop he jumped to the device and turned it on.

The screeching sound forced Damon down on his knees and it hurt Cosette twice as bad because of the fact that her hearing was more enhanced than his. She let out a whine and fell to the floor, transforming back and forth and fighting to keep her focus.

John walked up to her and injected something familiar into her body that made her scream in pain. Like with vampires, a certain herb that could cause her pain existed and that rare herb was the plant commonly known as Florida Blazing Star or Sandtorch. Damon tried helping her, but vervain was injected into his neck and John ordered two cops to take him to the other vampires, while he stayed with Cosette, who was screaming in pain on the floor.

"I have other plans with you, Cosette," he said. "Or should I call you Sacnite?"

Cosette's eyes widened and she looked incredulously at him. "Who told you that?" she hissed.

"Oh, just your former lover Caleb along with a couple of other things about you."

Revenge… This was revenge for choosing Damon over him. Cosette knew that Caleb was angry with her, but she didn't think that he would actually help someone hurting her. John took her out to his car and placed her in the back. She tried to transform, but the sandtorch had paralyzed her limps. She tried using her other powers instead, but it was getting harder and harder to hold focus. She decided not to fight and saved her remaining strength.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"I was told to drop you off somewhere particular," John answered and sighed. "Isobel's orders."

Isobel? That didn't sound like Isobel's doing, but Cosette didn't ask further about it. She was too tired to hold her eyes open, so she let herself fall asleep and didn't even sense her body being moved once John reached the Mystic Falls motel. It was first in the morning Cosette woke up and she was awakened by the sound of a girl singing a familiar song in Bulgarian. She opened her eyes and winced of the pain in her body where John had injected the sandtorch.

"Welcome back," she heard someone say. Cosette's first thought was Elena, but then she looked at the girl who stood beside the bed she was lying on and there was something about her that made her think that it was someone else. "I hear you've been looking for me, Cosette."

Cosette groaned. "Katherine… of course…" she said and sat up, wrapping the blanket around her naked body. Katherine tossed her some new clothes that she began pulling on. "Isobel contacted you, didn't she?"

"Actually, I contacted her. You see, I heard from a little bird that Klaus is looking for you and since I still owe you a favor from the last time you saved me, then I thought I would warn you."

"And I appreciate that, but I already know that he's looking for me. But there was a reason to why I was looking for you. I owe a favor to a certain Original and as much as I like you Kat, then you behaved very badly towards him."

"Ah, Elijah? It's a long time since I've last seen him. But I have a better idea. How about you help me kill Klaus and in return I'll let you have Damon all to yourself?"

Cosette frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? How do you know that…"

"I tried to kiss him last night, but he turned me down. He still thought that I was Elena, though, and so did John before I cut his fingers off…"

They both smirked of that, but Cosette was still annoyed of that Katherine had tried kissing Damon, who currently didn't know where she was or if she was even alive.

"Fine, you have a deal. But Elijah is not going to be happy about me letting you get away." Cosette said.

Katherine smiled and leaned down to hug the now fully dressed Cosette. "I've truly missed you, Cos. I'm sorry about not telling you that I was going to Mystic Falls." Katherine said and she sounded like she meant it.

The two girls were quiet for a few seconds of the thought of the past, but Cosette reminded herself of that she needed to get back to Damon or at least let him know that she was fine.

"Before I go there's something I need to know…" She looked Katherine straight in her eyes and asked firmly. "Are you up to something other than to kill Klaus?"

Katherine nodded. "But I'll tell you about my other plans later. You have a Salvatore to visit, yes?"

Cosette blushed, but nodded and left the motel. She hurried back to the boarding house as fast as she could and searched for Damon, but found Stefan and Elena in the house instead with a worried look on their faces. Elena immediately went to hug her when she entered the living room and Cosette couldn't stop herself from comparing her new friend Elena to her old friend Katherine.

"What happened to you? We heard that John took you somewhere and–"

"I'm fine, Elena. He didn't hurt me, but… I did run in to Katherine. I can't believe she's in town and I can't believe that she tried to kiss Damon either!" Cosette said, feeling still quite annoyed of that.

Katherine may not be her best friend, but she was still her friend and shouldn't do things like that. She had done it before and there even was a time where she actually slept with the man she was dating. Speaking of Damon… where was he anyway?

"You met Katherine? Did she tell you anything?" Stefan asked worriedly.

Cosette shook her head even though that was a lie. But the deal between her and Katherine was personal, so he didn't need to hear anything about it and it wouldn't help them in any way.

"Do you know where Damon is? Katherine did tell me that she met him…" she said.

"He's heading to the Lockwood Mansion for the mayor's funeral. Mayor Lockwood died during the attack, but we don't know why. We just know that he's not normal." Stefan said.

"We're going there too. You're coming?" Elena asked.

Cosette hesitated. She wanted to talk with Damon, but she thought it was better if she held a low profile among the Council for now, so she shook her head and waited for them to leave before she fetched two bags of human blood. She poured it up in a glass with Bourbon and just sat on the couch, waiting patiently for Damon to get home. She was happy that he had rejected Katherine, but she still worried about what he was going to do now that Katherine was back.

When Damon did return and walked in to the living room, he seemed surprised to see her and like he'd forgotten all about her for a moment. Cosette moved her gaze away from him and back to the empty glass in her hand.

"Are you… drunk?" Damon asked worriedly, walking up to her.

He found the empty bottle of Bourbon and the empty blood bags and sighed heavily.

"No…" Cosette lied even though she was.

Damon frowned and cupped her face in his hands, forcing her to look into his blue eyes. She felt her heart melt a bit and the anger inside her began fading away.

"I know that Katherine is back. She told me that you almost kissed."

Damon groaned. "Of course she told you that. She's trying to ruin our lives."

"If that's true then she's succeeding."

Cosette stood up and tried leaving the living room, but Damon quickly ran up in front of her and stopped her.

"Cosette, why are you so angry? I didn't kiss her if that's what you're–"

"That's _not_ why I'm angry. I'm angry because… because I'm worried about your feelings to Katherine. I know that she broke your heart and lied, but so did Caleb and I've still had feelings for him."

"I'm _not_ going back to her! Besides, she's more interested in getting Stefan back or so I've heard. But I do love you, Cosette, and I'm not letting Katherine get between us."

Cosette sighed, but chose to leave the subject for now. "Can I at least slap you for talking with her?"

Without any warning Damon suddenly picked her up in his arms and gave her a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back passionately.

"You can slap me as much as you want to, but then I want to _spank_ you…" he teased.

"Of course you want to, you perv!" she said and giggled. "But before you rock my world again, then there's someone I need to call."

Damon groaned, but gave her a kiss and began taking off his shirt as he walked up the stairs to his bedroom. Cosette stayed downstairs and called Elijah immediately. She had to let him know that she'd found Katherine even though she wasn't going to help him capture her.

"_Did you find her?_" Elijah asked as soon as he answered the phone.

"Yes, I did. Or rather – she found me. I'll try to keep her here in Mystic Falls long enough for you to come, but I'm not stopping her if she leaves and you know why. Besides, I have my own problems to deal with. Yaotl is back and furious at me, I don't know where Phillip is but I know he's with Yaotl and pissed off at me too, and I keep hearing that Klaus is looking for me for reasons I don't know what are!" Cosette answered quietly, so Damon wouldn't hear anything.

"_Ah… yes. I've heard the rumors too and as for Yaotl and Phillip then I'll take care of them for you as a thank you for helping me. I won't be asking you for more._"

"Thank you, Eli. I really appreciate that. Good luck with your search and… call me if you hear anything about why Klaus wants me."

"_I will_." And with that Elijah hung up and Cosette walked up to Damon, her head full of worries.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	17. Mason

**A/N: Hiii, thanks for the reviews! :D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 17:

"Damon Salvatore! Give me back my bra and that's now!" Cosette shouted from the top of the staircase, wearing nothing but her panties and one of Damon's black shirts.

She ran down the stairs and in to the living room where she was embarrassed to find not Damon, but rather Elena, Stefan, and Bonnie. She stopped abruptly and blushed, pulling Damon's shirt shyly down to cover her bare legs.

"Hi there… I'm sorry to disturb you, but have you seen a very annoying dick?" she asked calmly.

"_Looking for this, sweetie?_" Damon said, standing right behind her.

Cosette turned around and saw him holding her black bra up in front of her, so of course she tried to snatch it back, but he swiftly moved past her to the other side of the living room, winking flirtatiously at her just to annoy her a bit more. Bonnie and Elena tried to suppress their giggles, while Stefan rolled his eyes of his brother's antics. Cosette on the other hand, narrowed her eyes and glared at him.

"Oh, you do _not_ want to piss a 1000 year old nagual off!" she hissed angrily, feeling her cheeks become more and more red.

"Is that so? I think you're bluffing!" Damon teased.

Cosette flipped him off and left the living room, but Damon swiftly moved up in front of her again and blocked her path.

"No sex in a whole month or give me back my bra. It's your choice."

He narrowed his eyes and actually considered whether or not it was actually worth teasing her and decided to give it back, but only so he could pick her up in his arms and take her back to his bedroom before she could protest.

"Don't be such a buzz kill, Cos. It doesn't suit your pretty face…" he purred and gave her a butt a squeeze. Cosette rolled her eyes and took his shirt off, so she could get the bra on.

She noticed that Damon was watching her every move carefully and blushed a little more. She pulled his shirt back on and walked up to him to give him a passionate kiss. He pulled her with him down on the bed and made her sit on his lap, so he could continue the kiss for a little longer time.

Cosette closed her eyes and enjoyed every second of the kiss. She gently made him lie down and the kisses became more heated and fervently and Damon's fingers instinctively went under her shirt, but he was just a few inches from the clasp of her bra when they suddenly heard a knock on the door. Damon groaned quietly, while Cosette ignored the sound and just continued to kiss him. For once she didn't think about Katherine, but just enjoyed her time with him.

"_Cosette, could I please talk with you for a moment?_" Elena asked.

"No, you cannot!" Damon answered, smirking smugly. "She's busy being naked…"

Cosette could hear Elena gasp and the doppelganger's heart began pounding faster. She shook her head of Damon, who was kissing her gently on the side of her neck and on her collarbone.

"I'll be with you in ten minutes, ok?" she said.

"_Fine, but just remember how countless many women Damon has slept with in that bed before you!_"

Damon chuckled, but Cosette's face was contorted in an angry expression. "Oh, c'mon! You didn't complain those other times and–"

"Sorry, it's too late. I lost the mood."

Cosette stepped off him and went on a quick search for her other clothes. She dressed, but before she left she gave Damon a kiss and a weak slap on his cheek.

"Lighten up. You have all day to charm your way back to my heart."

Damon grinned and watched her leave the bedroom. She walked down to Elena and Bonnie, who were talking about a carnival in town. They looked a tad surprised to see her at first, but then Elena grinned because she could tell that her comment worked as planned.

"I'm here! I'm here!" Cosette said and sat down on the couch.

"I really don't understand how you can date _him_! I know he's charming and probably great in bed too, but – really? You could do better than Damon." Bonnie said, shaking her head of Cosette.

Cosette blushed. "Um… well… it's kindda hard to explain. But I guess I just have a thing for bad boys or rather douche bags then. Sorry, I can't help it!" she said.

They all laughed hard of that and Cosette could hear Damon mutter a curse in the kitchen. She ignored it and turned her focus back to her friends.

"Why did you call for me?" she asked curiously.

"Well, Caroline is usually in charge of the annual carnival, but since she crashed during the Founder's Party and is still at the hospital, then we offered to do it for her and we could really need an extra pair of hands. Namely, you." Elena answered.

"A carnival? Well…"

"Sorry, she can't. She's busy tonight." Damon interrupted with his usual cocky smirk.

"I'm-what?" Cosette said, frowning at him.

"I need your help with… something. It's about Tyler's uncle, who just came to town and how it was possible that the mayor was affected by the Gilbert device. I mean, he can't be a nagual like you and he's not a vampire either, so he must be something else we haven't met before."

Cosette wondered a bit about that too. She hadn't met the mayor, so she didn't know what he was, but she had sensed that there was something odd about Tyler when she first began attending Mystic Falls High School. She really wanted to go with Damon, but she also wanted to help Elena, so she looked questioningly at her.

"It's ok. I think we'll handle it, but just be careful." Elena said hesitantly.

Damon smirked and asked: "Aren't we always that?"

"Um, _you_ aren't, no. You always do something incredible stupid and get us in trouble."

Cosette giggled. "Yup, that sounds like Damon alright!" she said.

Damon rolled his eyes and dragged her out of the house and in to his car. They drove straight to the Lockwood Mansion where Damon was supposed to meet up with Carol Lockwood, because she wanted to talk with him about the Council. But while he would do that she had the chance to talk with Tyler and his uncle Mason, who were exercising outside the house when they arrived.

"He kindda looks hot," Cosette teased as she stepped out of Damon's car. Damon frowned and growled under his breath. "Jealous, much?"

"I'm not jealous!" he snapped. "Besides, he's not hotter than me."

Cosette giggled. "Oh, I don't know… I think you're pretty equal."

Damon discretely, but quickly moved up in front of her and pinned her to his car, pressing his lips hard against hers. She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and let him prove that she didn't choose the wrong guy.

"Okay, fine! You're definitely hotter than him. Especially shirtless."

Damon smirked and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead before he walked inside. Cosette walked up to them and watched as they ran back and forth from one tree to another. She picked up on a scent that made her instincts react and it seemed like Mason did the same thing, because he suddenly stopped running and walked up to her with a wondering look in his eyes. The closer he got to her the stronger the scent became, but she also picked up on another and familiar scent.

Katherine.

"Oh, hi Cosette!" Tyler said when he spotted her too.

"Hi, Tyler! And… your very bare uncle," Cosette said and pretended to be shy. "I'm sorry about disturbing your training, but… I just wanted to drop by and pay my respect. I know it must have been a hard time for you and your mother."

Tyler sighed, but still thanked her for coming, while his uncle remained emotionless about it. He kept his gaze on her the entire time and just waited to get the right opportunity to talk with her alone.

"Tyler, could you get the basketball? I think it's about time we work on your jumps." he said.

Of course Tyler frowned a bit of his uncle's odd behavior, but he went inside to get his basketball, while Mason stayed outside with Cosette.

"You reek of Katherine, you know that, right?" she asked.

Mason wrinkled his nose a bit. "Not enough for Damon to notice it, though. But then again, he's not as old as you are. No one is," he answered. "I'm kindda surprised to find you with Damon. He doesn't seem to be your choice."

"Neither do you to Katherine and still she are sleeping with a wolf."

Mason chuckled. "What can I say? It's my charm. But Katherine and I would personally appreciate if you didn't tell the Salvatores about what I and my late brother are."

"That might be, but Katherine knows that I don't answer to anyone. Not even her."

"You two are very alike. You know that, right?"

Cosette snorted. "We're nothing alike. I don't manipulate with people to get my way."

Mason smirked. "Not now you aren't, but you will some day. It's evidently with a past like yours."

She chuckled and took a step closer to him – so close that she could almost smell the scent of which perfume Katherine wore the last time they were together.

"Mason, you're wrong. And you know why? I'm older than Katherine. Much older. I've been through everything and I have tried to manipulate with people to get my way. It always ends badly. Especially for the guys, who fall for the one who's manipulating with them."

She didn't say anymore, but walked back to Damon's car and waited for Damon to return. He returned after about 10 minutes and drove straight back to the boarding house. None of them said anything at first, because Cosette was busying wondering what Katherine might be up to besides trying to find a way to stop Klaus before he found her.

"Oh, no! You're starting to brood like Stefan!" Damon teased, breaking the silence.

"I'm not brooding. I just… I'm starving, "Cosette said, hoping to draw his attention on something else. "You up for something fresh and bloody?"

Damon smirked. "Always."

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	18. Hunger

**A/N: Hi... so, um, yeah I didn't die if that's what you were worried about xD There are two reasons of why I'm updating so late. 1 - I've been worried of that you guys weren't that interested in it anymore since I wasn't getting that many reviews. 2 - my teachers are giving me tons of homework! -_-'**

**Anyway, thanks for the reviews and... enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 18:

When Cosette said "fresh and bloody" Damon imagined humans, but since Stefan was keeping an eye on both of them Cosette took him to the woods instead to go hunting for animals. But she reassured that the kind of blood that they were going to drink wasn't at all like the stuff Stefan drank and definitely not if it was combined with his favorite choice of beverage.

They caught an adult male deer (more precisely Cosette caught it while Damon complained about drinking animal blood) and then drained it for blood, but took the meat with them in case they wanted to eat deer. Cosette mixed the blood with Bourbon and handed the glass to Damon, who looked skeptically at it.

"You sure it'll taste good?" he asked.

"Of course. I've tried it before a dozen of times," Cosette answered and mixed some more blood with her favorite choice of beverage – red wine. She took a sip of her wine glass and smiled of satisfaction of the delicious taste. Damon tried taking a sip too and a smile formed on his lips when he gulped it down. "You like it?"

"Yeah, it's… surprisingly good. But it would taste better with human blood."

Cosette grinned. "Everything tastes better with human blood."

"No, not ice cream," Stefan said, standing with Elena at the doorway. "What are you drinking?"

"Deer blood," Cosette said. "I thought I would try tricking Damon into becoming a vegetarian."

Damon glared at her, but she just laughed and went in to the kitchen with Elena following right behind her. She began making a sandwich, but as she was making herself something to eat she overheard Stefan telling Damon that Caroline had turned into a vampire and they didn't know where she was. But to make things worse, then Katherine was the one who had turned her.

"I'm guessing you're going to tell me that Caroline is a vampire too, right?" Cosette asked, looking over her shoulder at Elena.

Elena sighed and nodded. "I can't believe that Katherine would do that. I mean, how is Caroline being a vampire going to help her with her plans? You're her friend, you should know why." she said.

"I have asked her, but she wouldn't tell me everything. But I promise I'll stop her if she continues doing things like this. She may be my friend, but even I have limits to how far I want her to go."

"Thank you. I know it must be hard for you to go against her. But let's just find Caroline and give her the help she needs."

Cosette nodded and they left to go to the carnival where they figured Caroline might go. Elena kept an eye out for her while taking care of the last few things with Bonnie, while Cosette walked around and searched for Caroline as well as Katherine. It wouldn't surprise her if Katherine was nearby, watching as her evil plan played out, but she also knew that it was unlike Katherine to transform a random girl without a cause. That was more something Klaus would do.

After about one and a half hour of nothing Damon finally approached Cosette with a worried expression in his face. He'd met Caroline and that meant that she was at the carnival, ticking like a bomb that was just waiting to explode.

"So she really is a vampire?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh, yeah. She has completed her transition," Damon answered. "This is Vickie all over again…"

"Vickie? Who's that?"

Damon hesitated. "A girl I transformed and then had to kill because she went a little… berserk on Elena's little brother."

"Oh… well that just made you lose sex for a whole week."

He groaned, but he knew that she was being serious. Although Cosette didn't mind him drinking blood from innocent humans, then he was pushing her buttons when he too had transformed someone even though he knew that the girl might not be able to control her hunger.

However, none of them said anything until they reached Elena and confirmed her suspicion. They all spread out and continued the search for Caroline. Cosette transformed to her dog form and went searching that way, but it wasn't Caroline's scent she caught in the air. It was Katherine's. She left the carnival and found Katherine sitting on a railing nearby, looking towards the carnival.

"Hello, Cosette," Katherine said calmly and smiled. Cosette transformed back to her human form and covered her naked body with her hands and long hair. "You look pissed off. I take you've heard about Caroline…"

"I did," Cosette said angrily. "Tell me what else you're up to."

"Aw, but that'll ruin the fun!"

Cosette glared venomously at her. "Tell me the truth or I might tell Elijah where you are."

Katherine glared back at her and reluctantly told the truth. "I want Stefan back. He belongs with me. Klaus can have Elena if he wants to, but Stefan's mine."

She looked incredulously at her. "That's it? You just want Stefan?"

Katherine nodded. "I also want you to come with me when all of this is over. I don't want Klaus to get his hands on you when I know what a bastard he can be."

Cosette sighed. "And Mason? Why does he work for you?"

She shrugged. "Common interest. And then he's utterly in love with me like a little puppy."

That didn't surprise Cosette the least. "Okay, let's make a little deal. You help me avoid Klaus if I keep my mouth shut about what your little puppy is, why you're here, and what you will benefit from all of this. Deal?"

Katherine nodded. "Always a pleasure doing business with you, Cosette. Oh, and because we _are_ friends, then I took the liberty to kill Phillip for you. I overheard him talking with Klaus on the phone and they were talking about you."

Cosette didn't comment on that, but merely transformed back to her dog form and hurried back to the carnival. She found Damon panting on the ground and his pants were all soaked and burned. She transformed to her human form and helped him get up.

"Who the hell did you piss off?" she asked.

"Who do you think?" Damon snapped, clearly very pissed off himself.

Cosette sighed and helped him to his car in the parking lot. She made sure that Katherine wasn't anywhere nearby and used his leather jacket to cover her body in case any humans saw her. They eventually arrived at the boarding house again and after changing to new clothes, Cosette poured some of her own blood in a glass and let Damon drink it. She was still part human, so the blood would strengthen him after his little collision with Bonnie.

"Did you find Caroline?" she asked.

"Yes, and now she's Stefan's problem," Damon answered irritably. "What do you think the Lockwoods are? You talked with Mason today, didn't you?"

Cosette hesitated, because she remembered the deal she made with Katherine a few minutes ago. "I did, but I couldn't talk properly with him when Tyler was around. He is a supernatural being, though. I'm positive of that."

Damon looked suspiciously at her for a moment. "You sure?"

She nodded, but became annoyed of his suspicion. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Like what?"

"Like you don't trust me."

"Maybe because you suddenly disappeared during the search and you've been brooding ever since Katherine came to town… is there something happening that I should know of?"

Cosette sighed. "It's just… something from my past. Or rather someone. I really don't want to meet him, because he's from my dark era."

The suspicion and anger disappeared from Damon's face. "Oh… who is he?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know. He–"

"It's ok. You don't have to tell me… just… come here."

Cosette sat down next to Damon on the couch and he pulled her in for a deep and tender kiss that reminded her of Klaus and how he could make her common sense disappear just by kissing her. She felt bad about lying to Damon, but there were other ways of letting him know the truth without actually saying it. She just hoped that he would figure everything out by himself, so Katherine wouldn't get suspicious of how he found out about what she was up to.

"Am I really not getting lucky this week?" Damon asked teasingly, moving his tickling kisses to the side of her neck.

"Nope!" Cosette said teasingly. "I'm going to take a shower now. Wanna join me?"

Damon's face lit up with joy and he followed her up to his bedroom, stripping down with her and heading in to the shower cabin. Although he wasn't getting lucky tonight, then she allowed him to continue the sweet kisses and let him enjoy his full view of her body, because she wanted to enjoy her full view of his body too.

"You know what I'm thinking of right now?" Damon asked, smirking mischievously.

"Hmm… knowing what a sex-addict you are then I'm guessing it's something naughty," Cosette said, making Damon chuckle and shake his head. "No? Well, what is it then?"

He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him, pushing a wet lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm thinking about that time I saw you in the Grill – looking a few years older."

"Oh, you mean this?"

Cosette used her powers to become older and grew a couple of inches before him. He smirked and his eyes instinctively moved down to her breasts, which made her roll her eyes and cover his eyes with her hands.

"Once a perv, always a perv."

Damon chuckled and took her hands in his, pulling her closer to him and pressing his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, thinking only about him now.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	19. Klaus

**A/N: Hii, sorry about the long wait. I'm drowning in homework as usual, so don't be surprised if it takes longer time for me to update :/ But thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts and if you want me to update faster, then all you have to do is to remember to review - the ones I get most reviews on will be updated first ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 19:

"Wooohoo! Road trip!" Cosette exclaimed as Alaric began driving.

That made Damon and Elena frown and look weirdly at her, but the smile on Cosette's lips didn't fade away. She was genuinely excited about going on a road trip – even if it was just to Duke University where they had to find some of Isobel's research about werewolves. She needed a change and that was just what she got by going with them.

"Are you drunk, love?" Damon asked teasingly.

"A little, yes, but not enough to sleep with you!" Cosette teased, making Elena and Alaric laugh while Damon just rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for coming with us. We know that you have a lot of other things to worry about right now," Elena said gratefully. "And we can really need yours and Isobel's expertise on werewolves."

Cosette smiled, but couldn't stop herself from thinking about the deal she made with Katherine about keeping quiet about her plans and what the Lockwoods really were. She _needed_ Katherine's help to avoid running into Klaus and she also needed to find a way to keep Damon from getting involved in her dark past that was trying to reach the surface again.

"Cosette, come here…" Damon said silkily. Cosette unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned in between him and Alaric in the front of the car. "How well do you exactly know Isobel?"

"Haven't I already told you that?" she asked, frowning of his question.

"Yes, but I'm starting to question secret motives and if there's anything you're hiding from us because you think we don't need to worry about, then please tell me now or I'll throw you out of this car right now." he answered truthfully.

Cosette sighed and moved closer to his ear, so the others couldn't hear her. "I'll tell you when we get there, I promise, but I can't talk about it here. Ok?"

Damon narrowed his eyes at her, but after a few minutes of silence he nodded and she gave him a kiss on his cheek and moved back to her seat in the back.

"I just remembered something… you've never told me about your past before. You know, when you were a child. Have you always been a shape shifter?" Elena asked to replace the tense silence.

Cosette could tell that Elena wasn't the only one who was curious about her past life, so she decided to open up a bit more to them and let them know that they could trust her.

"As I've already told Damon, then I was born in Monte Albán in 932 and yes, I was born a shape shifter, but my powers weren't triggered before I… well, this is sort of embarrassing, but let's just say I got my first monthly _thing_," she said and heard Damon chuckle. She kicked him in the back and continued her story. "My parents were normal humans, so I'm not sure how I got my powers, but that made the people from my hometown believe that I was a demon. Therefore, we moved out of the town and into the woods where we minded our own business, until…"

"Until you met Yaotl." Elena finished for her.

Cosette nodded and wondered if Elijah had found Yaotl yet and taken him down. "After I was forced to leave my home, I went to Eastern Europe and stayed there for about 100 or more years, doing things I'm not proud of. I… became very dark and cruel, but luckily I met someone who made me realize that I was turning into a monster."

"How many did you kill?" Damon asked, having a hard time believing that she could become like that.

She sighed and thought back on all those people she practically slaughtered. "I lost count after the first week. But as I said – then I'm not proud of what I did."

Damon didn't push the subject any further and stayed quiet during the rest of the trip. So did the others after a few attempts from Elena, who tried to lighten up the mood. But they eventually arrived at Duke University and Damon stopped Cosette, while Elena and Alaric went inside, because he wanted that talk alone with her.

"Tell me the truth and tell me the whole truth this time. I don't want you to keep anymore secrets from me. I love you, Cosette, but I don't trust you and I'm trying so hard to do it." Damon said.

"I know… and I'm sorry. I should have told you everything from the beginning. I… made a deal with Katherine," Cosette said and sighed. "She promised to protect me from a vampire named Klaus if I promised not to tell what she's up to. Klaus is… both our enemy number one and the one who nearly turned me into a heartless monster. He's not someone you'd want to meet."

Damon frowned. "How could you _not_ tell me that? If you need help stopping Klaus, then I will be happy to help you. Katherine is not going to help you with anything. She'll wait until she gets what she wants and then leave you to defend yourself alone."

"But you can't win over Klaus and you can't help me kill him! No one can… he's an Original."

"Which is…?"

"One of the first ever vampires. All vampires were created by them."

Damon groaned and shook his head of her. "_Sacnite_, I know I'm not a shape shifter or 300 years old, but when I or someone I care about gets in trouble, I _always_ save them. Forget about Katherine and just let me help you. I might be able to help you find a way to kill him – Original or not – then no one is allowed to take you from me."

Cosette was surprised to hear how passionate Damon was about protecting her, but she knew that he truly did love her as much as she loved him, so she trusted his words and let him help her.

"Okay. But if anything bad happens to any of us, then you'll let me take care of this alone. I've lived for a long time. You haven't."

"Don't pull that crap on me! Either we both go down or none of us do."

Cosette groaned and took a deep breath to keep herself from arguing with him, but as she did so she suddenly caught the scent of something familiar in the air and froze on the spot. She was about to tell Damon about it, but she was afraid that she would only put him in danger, so instead she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips against his. Damon didn't hesitate to kiss her back and pressed her against the car for a moment, letting her know just how much he loved her.

"I love you too, Damon…" she whispered, enjoying the touch of his hands moving slowly down to her hips. "I truly do."

It was the sound of Alaric calling their names that broke their passionate kiss, but Cosette told Damon to go inside first, because she needed some time alone. As soon as he had gone inside the familiar smell became stronger and she could sense another being's presence behind her. She turned and found Caleb standing behind her with a few bruises on his body from his fight with Damon.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" Cosette growled more than said.

Caleb smirked. "You did, but I'm not here to make you change your mind. Klaus sent me," he said and the smirk on his lips grew wider. "I accidentally ran into him a couple of centuries ago and at first when he mentioned your name I thought about protecting you from him, but… you did turn me down several times and chose that baby vamp over me, so now I'm not feeling so generous anymore."

"Touch me and I'll kill you. You know I can. I'm stronger and older than you."

Caleb snorted. "We'll see about that."

He changed into his wolf form and so did Cosette just before he attacked her. She jumped out of the way and growled warningly at him, but he just flashed his sharp teeth and tried attacking her again. This time Cosette didn't just warn him, but jumped on him and bit hard into his neck, leaving a bloody gash. He whined for a moment, but endured the pain and then tackled her to the ground.

A black van drove up to them as he held her down to the ground and before Cosette could run, she felt sandtorch being injected into her neck, paralyzing every inch of her body. Caleb jumped inside the van with her, transforming back and holding a hand on the wound on his neck, while another vampire handed him some new clothes and a blood bag. He was smirking even though he was hurt and made her look deep into his dark brown eyes.

"Oh, and by the way – Klaus told me to say he can't wait to meet you." he said tauntingly.

"Yaotl–!" Cosette could feel the darkness take over her mind and was sent to Dreamland.

* * *

><p><em>Germany, 1085 A.D.<em>

_Sacnite glanced around in the eerie meadow, taking in everything around her – from the sound of a young owl howling quietly to the sound of a hare making its way down its hole. She took a deep breath of air before she crossed the dark meadow and the second she stepped out from the darkness she could sense someone watching her and it did not take long for her to figure out who that person was. He had been following her all day like a predator on a hunt for its prey and now he had the perfect opportunity to take her down. She felt his presence behind her and stopped walking, smirking weakly to herself._

"_I did wonder when you would show yourself," she said and turned to face him. He flashed his fangs and golden eyes, which surprised her a tad. She had not expected him to be of both races, but now that she did she knew that he was a worthy opponent in a battle of life and death. "So you are the hybrid I have heard so much about?"_

_The hybrid smirked and in a flash he was suddenly on top of her. She rolled backwards and threw him off her and into a tree that broke in two because of the impact. But he was still alive and still capable of fighting, so he went to attack her again and this time she transformed into her lion form. _

_Sacnite roared loudly at him, making him freeze on the spot with wide eyes. He hesitated, but attacked her anyway and jumped on her back before she could bite him, grabbing hold of her white fur. She backed into a tree to knock him off her and succeeded, giving her enough time to transform to her wolf form. She then attacked him and bit hard into his leg, making him let out a cry of pain and flash his fangs at her again. He tackled her to the ground with such force that she transformed back to her bare, human form and he quickly used this to his advantage by pinning her body to the ground with his weight and hands._

"_Well, well, look at that! Looks like I had the rare opportunity of meeting a real life shape shifter… and then a very stunning one," he said and smirked smugly. "Tell me who you are and how you know me."_

_Sacnite laughed darkly and in a flash he was suddenly the one being pinned to the ground by her, but not that he minded it. He certainly had a good view from where he was lying, which Sacnite noticed. She ignored his lustful gaze on her body and leaned down to his ear._

"_The name is Sacnite, hybrid, and you better remember it!" she whispered and met his eyes again. _

"_Well, Sacnite, I appreciate if you would call me Klaus and now that I have your full attention I have a question for you. I have heard that shape shifters like yourself are able to break curses… is that true? For if it is, then I would like to come with a… ah, proposition of sorts that will help both of us in the end."_

_Sacnite smiled darkly. "It is true that _some _of us shape shifters are able to break curses, but what could you possibly offer me in return, you silly hybrid?"_

_The smirk on Klaus's lips widened. "I can give you whatever you want and more."_

_She giggled and leaned close to his lips, but not close enough for her lips to touch his. "Sounds good."_

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


	20. The Predator Inside

**A/N: Hiii, thanks for the reviews (if you reviewed - can't remember because I have the memory of an 80-year-old xD)!**

**As you read in chap 19 then Klaus is finally in the picture and things are going to get very bloody and more action packed now :D**

**Tell me what you think and if there's anything you would like to see happen later in this story. It's nice to hear what my lovely readers think could be interesting or if I'm missing something that should happen :)**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 20:

The strong smell of fresh human blood woke Cosette up and after blinking a few times to get her vision back she saw a pair of familiar blue eyes and a face that she instantly recognized. She felt her heart skip a beat and he seemed to notice this, because he smirked mischievously. She looked confusedly around and could see that she was lying on a couch in a huge house. She moved her gaze back to the owner of the house and took the glass of blood he handed her.

"You are not easy to find, Sacnite…" he said and nodded to a warlock, who quietly left the living room so they could talk alone. "I have been looking for you for quite some time now, you know."

"So I've heard," Cosette said, carefully sitting up. She looked at the beautiful dress she wore and wondered when and _who _had dressed her in it. "Your hair looks funny short."

Klaus chuckled and instinctively touched his now short, but still curly and dark blond hair. He took a sip of his own glass of fresh human blood and so did Cosette. She could immediately taste that the person Klaus had killed quite recently to get the blood was a young woman in her early twenties. It had a very strong and almost "young" flavor to it, which she always loved.

"You certainly have aged very well. How old are you now? 1000?" Klaus asked curiously.

"1079… God, I feel old compared to everyone…" Cosette answered, trying not to show how displeased she was about his presence.

"Well, to be fair, then you're not _that_ much older than me, but I'd rather spend my eternity with you than a young and ignorant 100-year-old vamp."

"Aww, thanks (!)"

Klaus laughed of her sarcasm and took another sip of his drink before he put the glass down and walked straight up to her. He cupped her face between his hands and gently pressed his lips against hers; making her feel things she didn't think she would feel towards him.

"I've truly missed you, Sacnite. I do _not_ understand why you decided to go on the wagon when you did so perfectly off it. You were the best ripper I'd ever seen."

"Killing can be tiring…" It was a lie and Klaus knew it, but he didn't say anything. "Klaus, if you just want me to become a ripper again like in the old times, then forget it. I'm never going back to that time and I'm happy with someone else."

"Ah, yes. Damon Salvatore… I've heard a few things about him by Yaotl. He also told me where to find you, which I very much appreciate, but you know what I hate more than liars?"

Of course Cosette knew that. She knew him better than Elijah probably did and they were brothers, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what he'd done to Yaotl.

"You hate competition."

Klaus nodded and flashed a devilish smirk that she knew exactly what meant. He'd killed Yaotl, so there wouldn't be any problems between him and Klaus when he got what he wanted, which in this case was Cosette.

"I did hear that he'd been bothering you lately, so you're welcome."

Cosette rolled her eyes and took a large swig of her glass before she put it down. She tried to stand up, but Klaus pushed her down on the couch again.

"As for why I've been looking for you, then it's not just because of our old relationship. I need your help and if I remember correctly, then we did have a deal, yes?" he said.

Sadly, that _was_ true and that was one of the reasons why Cosette didn't want to run into him. She'd run from a deal she made with him and since he already had helped her with what she wanted from him, then it was time for her to do her part of the deal.

"You want me to help you break the curse on you," she stated more than asked. Klaus nodded and gave her a brief kiss on her hand, then walked up to his bookshelf and took out an old book with ancient words written in Nahuatl. He opened the book on a particular page and then handed the book to her. She looked at the page for only a few seconds and already knew what it was about. "Do you have all the ingredients for the ritual?"

"Almost. I still need the blood of a certain doppelganger, but fortunately Yaotl told me that you have befriended the second doppelganger, so… that shouldn't be so hard to get, right?"

Cosette sighed and wished that she'd never made that deal with Klaus. She couldn't betray Elena or the others and she didn't want to break Klaus's curse now that she knew how cruel he was.

"And if I refuse to help you?"

That seemed to amuse Klaus and made him laughing in a sinister tone. "Oh, you're going to help me no matter what. I can always get myself a new witch for the ritual, but unless you want to see your new little boy toy dead, then I suggest you do as I say. Or… you could return as my best ripper instead? Since it's you I'm willing to give you that choice, so what will it be? Ritual or ripper?"

Cosette sighed heavily and looked away. She honestly didn't know what to choose, because on one side she didn't want to betray her friends and boyfriend by doing the ritual, but on another side she really didn't want to let her dark side out. There was a reason why she held it locked up in a cage and had spent centuries trying to hold it down permanently.

"Let me think about it," was her only reply. "I can't just make such a big decision."

Klaus's jaw tightened, an obvious sign of him being annoyed with her answer. "Of course. But until you've made your decision, there is something or rather _someone _I want to give you. Look at her as a welcoming gift from me to you," he said and turned his head towards the doorway. "Oh, Kaitlyn! Could you please come in here?"

A young blond haired girl with baby blue eyes and a scared look on her face entered the room and if Cosette hadn't spotted the tattoo on the girl's left wrist she would have thought that the girl was only 16 or 17. She knew what Klaus wanted her to do and as tempting as it was, then she couldn't just kill an innocent girl. She never attacked any girls under 20 and she never killed those she attacked. She only drank some of their blood until they were just about to lose consciousness and then let them go.

"You want me to _kill_ her?" Cosette asked angrily.

"Oh, that's completely up to you. I couldn't care less about her, but just know – no matter how much you deny it, then you can't hide the fact that deep inside you is a fearsome predator that's just aching to come out and play. Would it harm to let it out just this one time? For me?" Klaus answered temptingly.

Cosette kept reminding herself mentally that it was wrong of her to kill that girl and tried thinking of Damon instead. But Klaus was right and she could still sense the predator inside her roar and try to break free from its cage. She sunk her nails into the cushions of the couch and tried restraining herself, but Klaus wasn't exactly helping her resist the temptation.

In a flash he was suddenly behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders and his lips so close to her ear that she could feel him breathe against her skin. It sent a tingle of excitement through her body and he could see that.

"C'mon, Sacnite. You want to taste her flesh between your teeth, drink all that delicious and warm blood that's pumping through her body as we speak, and rip her apart like only a true ripper would do. You miss the rush of adrenalin and the hunt… oh, the hunt is always what you enjoyed the most – to chase her through the woods, hear her heart beat faster and faster, and then… when she thinks she's safe you emerge from the darkness and jump on her like a lion on its–"

Cosette couldn't take it anymore and transformed into her true form – a vicious white and gray snow leopard. She could hear the sound of the girl's heart beat faster and faster and it was driving her mad. Klaus ordered the girl to run as fast as she could and she did without hesitating, but she barely made it to the door before the hungry leopard suddenly jumped on her and bit down in her neck, making a huge gash that poured out blood.

However, Cosette wasn't done with her yet and bit down in her leg, dragging her down the hallway and enjoying the sound of the girl's frantic screams. Klaus stood in the doorway with his glass of blood and watched as Cosette ripped the girl apart one limb at a time.

By the time she was done not only she was soaked in blood, but so were the walls, the floor, and the furniture – not that that bothered Klaus the least. He'd gotten what he wanted and when Cosette finally realized what she'd done it was already too late. The predator inside her was awake and it wasn't going to let her cage it again. She transformed back to her nude form and embraced herself, her body still shivering from the overwhelming sensation of letting go of all control.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, Sacnite. This is who you are. This is who you're meant to be and everyone who thinks you need to change is a fool. I am no fool, for I accept you just the way you truly are," Klaus said, bending down in his knees by her feet. He cupped her face between his hands again and made her look deep into his eyes. "Embrace the predator inside you. Embrace it and show me what you're capable of doing. No one is holding you back. No one will ever be able to _control_ you. You're free, Sacnite. Completely free."

Completely free? Cosette was having a hard time resisting the temptation. Just because she was over 1000 years old and was used to drinking blood, then it didn't mean that she could ignore her true nature. She was born a predator and would always be one.

But… what about Damon?

And Stefan and Elena?

And Elijah who taught her how to control her dark side?

Cosette was about to say something, but she was interrupted by Klaus, who pressed his lips against hers again. This time her dark side took over and her animal instincts made her kiss him back passionately. The animalistic attraction between them was still there and it was as strong as it was before when they were lovers.

The hybrid that hid deep inside Klaus responded to the growl from the predator inside her and no matter how hard her reasonable and good side tried to stop it then the predator was just too strong for her to ignore. It spread inside her like poison and filled every vein in her body.

"Welcome back, my love." Klaus said, smirking devilishly before his lips collided with hers again.

It seemed like nothing could pull them apart, but just before Klaus could take her to his bedroom and truly continuing their old relationship from where they left off, he was interrupted by his warlock friend Maddox, who looked like he had bad news in store for Klaus.

"Klaus, it's your brother. He's been spotted in New York and I heard from a guy named Cody that he's looking for the doppelganger as well." Maddox said.

Klaus broke the fiery kiss and glared at Maddox, but not because he'd stopped his moment with Cosette. It was because his brother had been mentioned. But he got an idea and looked at Cosette.

"Love, I need you to do a little favor for me," he said secretively. "What do you say about going back to your friends for some time?"

**Thanks for reading and please review! ^_^**


	21. The Masquerade

**A/N: Hii, sorry again about the late chap, but thanks for the reviews, faves, and alerts! ;)**

**We're speeding up to the episode "Masquerade", which means that Cosette is a lot different from before, so... let's see if Damon can tell that :D**

**Enjoy!**

**xoxo Ascha**

Chapter 21:

The Lockwood Mansion was filled with masked people outside as well as inside when Cosette arrived in Mystic Falls. She too wore a beautiful dress and mask, but she knew that even with the mask she would be recognized by her friends.

Before she stepped out of the car she leaned forward towards her human chauffeur and bit down into his neck, draining him for blood and ripping his throat open, but carefully trying not to stain her dress. She knew that she was going to want to kill again soon, but for now he would do. She took out a tissue and removed the blood residue and then stepped out of the car.

Cosette headed towards the massive crowd of people at the entrance and scanned the beautiful 19th century mansion for anyone she knew. She instantly spotted an old friend of hers and the smirk on her lips grew wider. She hadn't thought that it would be that easy to find Katherine, but that only meant that Katherine was still trying hard to get what she wanted, which of course was Stefan.

Calmly, Cosette walked up to Katherine and the dark skinned witch she was talking with and saw the frightened look on the witch's face when they accidentally touched. She winced back, but when Katherine spotted her she smiled and that made her friend relax a bit.

"Cosette? What a surprise to find you here!" she said, taking a bite of a red strawberry.

"Tell your little witch to leave us alone for a moment," Cosette said without showing any emotion at all in her face. This alarmed Katherine, but she told her friend to leave. "I'm done playing games with you, Katherine. Why are you here? And don't tell me it's only because of Stefan or because you want to kill Klaus, because we both know that there's no way for you to do that."

"What's with the sudden change of personality?"

Cosette smirked and stepped closer to Katherine with a sinister look in her eyes. "_Katerina_, you sure you want the answer to that?"

When Katherine didn't say anything Cosette decided to leave and took a glass of champagne with her outside where she saw another massive crowd of people. It seemed that almost the entire town had come tonight to the masquerade and it was particularly on nights like these where Cosette liked to go hunting. Not only were the teens too distracted with having fun, but they were also drunk and unable to see her coming, until her teeth were in their skin and they were being ripped apart.

"Cosette!" she suddenly heard someone familiar exclaim.

Cosette took a sip of her drink and turned around to face Damon, who was all dressed up in a simple black suit and who too wore a mask that covered half of his face. Damon was obviously relieved and shocked about seeing her there alive, while she remained emotionless and unable to understand what her human side loved about him.

"What… happened to you?" Damon asked worriedly, cupping her face in his hands.

"I… honestly don't remember much of what happened," she lied as Klaus had told her to. "One minute I was standing outside the university and the next I was locked up in a cellar. Yaotl held me captive for what felt like months, but… I managed to escape and just ran as fast as I could back to Mystic Falls. Damon, I'm so sorry…"

Cosette wrapped her arms around him and let out crocodile tears, but Damon seemed to believe her and hugged her tighter than he'd ever done before. He kissed her, wiped her tears away, and told her that he'd been searching for what actually had been months for her. A part of her still cared about him and loved him, but that part was being suppressed by the predator inside her.

"God, you're shaking… You really shouldn't be here." Damon said, looking worriedly around.

"No, I'm not leaving you again, Damon. I'm staying, but… is there a reason why you're here?" Cosette asked, noticing how tense he was tonight.

Damon nodded and showed wrote down in a text what they were up to, so Katherine wouldn't find out that they were actually trying to capture her. Cosette was surprised to hear that they were actually trying to capture Katherine, but it was a pleasant surprise because that meant that she didn't have to do it for Klaus. She offered her help, but Damon was more concerned about her well-being, so he told her to wait at the parking lot instead.

"I'll text you if I need your help," he said, caressing her cheek gently. "Just go to Bonnie and Jeremy and wait with them."

"Okay, but be careful Damon. I was the one who taught Katherine how to fight, so you better do it quickly before she gets to you…" Cosette said and pressed her lips against hiss, kissing him passionately and feeling a weak tingling sensation in her body.

Damon smiled and said those three magical words that used to make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but she didn't reply back and just left. She couldn't make herself say it, because the predator was trying so hard to make sure that her old self disappeared completely. But she found Bonnie and Jeremy in the parking lot and to her surprise Elena was also there, dressed in her normal clothes and looking worried of what was going on.

"Elena!" she exclaimed and hurried to hug her.

"Cosette! Oh, thank God you're alive!" Elena exclaimed, distracted from the reason why she even came to the Lockwood Mansion in the first place.

Cosette told Elena, Bonnie, and Jeremy the same lie and finally heard how they were planning to capture Katherine. However, Elena suddenly began bleeding from different places on her body and wounds appeared out of nowhere, which made Cosette smirk mentally. She was impressed by Katherine's backup plan, but she didn't want this backup plan to be Katherine's way out of their plan, so she used her powers to remove the linking spell and eased the pain Elena was feeling. Once Elena was healed I left the parking lot and hurried back inside the mansion, finding Damon, Katherine, and Stefan inside one of the rooms upstairs. Damon was pinning Katherine to the wall and threatening to stake her, but Stefan pulled him away.

"Ah, Miss Moody has come back," Katherine said, smirking smugly. "Have you told Damon that _Cosette_ is no longer present in your mind?"

Damon frowned and looked confusedly at Katherine and then at Cosette, who tried looking innocent and like her old self. Luckily, Katherine's friend showed up and distracted them all, but unfortunately she had the moonstone that Cosette knew belonged to Klaus. She would know, because she was the one who helped him find it after it was used to curse him.

"Stealing things that don't belong to you? Now that's not very nice Katherine, is it?" she asked, knowingly that Katherine knew who the stone rightfully belonged to.

"Says the girl who is hiding a monster worse than… another certain monster," Katherine answered, her smirk turning mischievous. "Go ahead. Tell Damon about how–"

The moment Katherine was given the moonstone by her friend Lucy she collapsed and began gasping for air. She eventually fainted and the Salvatore brothers helped each other carrying her out to the parking lot and drove her to the tomb under the ruins of Fell's Church where she should have been all along.

Cosette didn't say a word during the entire trip and stayed in the car when Damon took Katherine to the tomb and locked her inside it. He returned with a somber look on his face and drove them back to the Salvatore Boarding House and just as Cosette thought that she would actually get away with her lies and make him accept that she truly was back just like that, Damon suddenly stopped and turned to her.

"What did she mean when she said that '_Cosette_ _is no longer present in your mind_'?" he asked.

"I don't know," Cosette lied. "Maybe she was just trying to get between us. That's what she does, Damon. She's a manipulative and egocentric bitch and she'll always be that."

Damon hesitated, but nodded understandingly and pulled her in for a tight embrace that made her heart beat a little faster. The predator inside her tried ignoring it, but it was hard because this part of her that was in control now had been dormant for so many centuries. It needed to regain its strength and the best way to do that was to kill someone.

"I'm truly happy that you're back," Damon whispered softly in her ear, kissing her gently on her cheek, jaw, and neck. "I love you so much."

There it was again.

Cosette kissed him instead this time and felt the longing for her in his kisses. She let out a soft growl and allowed him to deepen the kiss. She felt her feral instincts take over and jumped up him, locking her legs around his waist. She kissed him more ferociously and the intensity of the burning desire inside her was almost too much for Damon to handle, but he let her tore his clothes off and took her to his bedroom in a flash.

Cosette pushed him down on his king-size bed and tore her own clothes off quicker than Damon could blink. She held him pinned to the mattress as they made love and her behavior became wilder and more animalistic for every minute that went. Damon winced in pain as she clawed him, but he was determined that her wild behavior was nothing but her missing him more than he thought.

However, Cosette realized what she was doing and restrained herself much to her pleasure, so Damon wouldn't suspect anything. She let him love her like in the old times and could sense that her good side was enjoying this more than the predator's wild and ferocious behavior.

"Someone's been missing me…" Damon said teasingly, pushing a sweaty stray strand of hair behind her ear. She smiled and ran her fingers through his dark hair. Parts of him reminded her of Klaus, but she knew deep inside that Klaus was out of his league in just about everything. "Since when did you become so… wild in bed?"

"Since I spent months in a dirty old dungeon," she lied, but in reality she had just been out hunting with Klaus and killing dozens of innocent people. "But tell me what you've been up to while I was gone. I want to help and make sure that Elena is safe."

"Cosette, you've just fled from Caleb, who has been holding you prisoner. Are you sure you're ready to continue?"

Cosette hesitated on purpose and that was enough answer for Damon. He kissed her gently and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

"Let me take care of this. You've done enough and deserve to rest," he said. "And from now on you tell me if something is wrong. I know I'm not into all that emotional crap, but… for you I'll try."

Cosette smiled weakly and gave him a real kiss – one that both her sides wanted to give him. "But you really don't have to worry about me. I've been through worse."

"Yes, I do. I'm your smoking hot boyfriend, remember?"

She giggled and the old part of her managed to shine through, but only because the predator allowed it, so Damon wouldn't become suspicious.

"You can be such a sweetheart, you know," Cosette teased, making Damon wrinkle his nose in disgust. "It's a good thing, silly. But that doesn't mean I want you to become a saint."

Damon sighed in relief. "Thank God! I wouldn't want to become a vegetarian like Steffie..."

Neither would the predator.

**Thanks for reading and please review! :D**


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